NEW DELHI, Nov 16: Contrary to the decision of the retired vice-chancellor of the Vishwa Bharati University, the Centre is claimed to have asked the Central University to replace the controversial plaques commemorating UNESCO’s award of World Heritage Site to Shantiniketan, varsity sources said on Thursday.
The Union education ministry has told the university to remove the plaques and replace them with ones having Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s name, the source added.
Vishwa Bharati spokesperson Mahua Bandyopadhyay, however, refused to confirm or deny the information. “We cannot confirm anything about the plaques unless we have a written communique from the Union education ministry,” she said.
Days after Shantiniketan got the UNESCO tag on September 17, three plaques commemorating the honour came up in different parts of the campus having the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is the chancellor of the University, and now retired vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty but did not mention Tagore’s name, the founder of Shantiniketan and Vishwa Bharati. This triggered an uproar from students, faculty and political parties.
On October 26, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had asked the Vishwa Bharati to immediately change the plaques or face indefinite protests by her party activists on the campus. Finally, the protests were withdrawn after Chakraborty’s five-year term ended on November 8 and Kala Bhavan principal Sanjoy Kumar Mallik took over as the officiating VC. Soon after taking over, Mallik told reporters that he would ensure the ideals and values cherished by Tagore are retained in the university’s functioning.
The University had earlier stated that many plaques installed in the past on the university compound did not bear the name of Rabindranath Tagore as in the case of the UNESCO World Heritage site. The statement of the central university came when the then VC Chakraborty was under fire from various quarters for installing three plaques without the name of the Nobel Laureate poet.
Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP had also called upon Vishwa Bharati authorities to set right the omission of Tagore’s name in the plaque as it involved the sentiments of millions of Bengalis.
(Manas Dasgupta)