Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, harshly criticized the authorities on Thursday for failing to engrave Rabindranath Tagore’s name on plaques marking Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan’s designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. She also issued a warning about planned large protests.
If the plaques were not replaced by Friday, she threatened to organize her party workers.
‘It is only for Tagore that Santiniketan got the UNESCO tag and you have removed his name from the plaques. We were silent because of Durga Puja celebrations. If you do not remove the plaques and put-up new ones with the Nobel Laureate’s name by 10 am tomorrow, our people will launch a demonstration holding Kobiguru’s photos to their chests,’ Banerjee told reporters at a press conference here.
The university administration’s installation of marble plaques featuring vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty and prime minister Narendra Modi, who doubles as the varsity’s chancellor, without any reference to Tagore, sparked a furious backlash.
The university had stated on Wednesday that the plaque served only as a temporary framework for defining the heritage site.
Mahua Bandyopadhyay, a spokesman for Visva Bharati, told PTI that ‘it was a purely temporary structure raised to demarcate the heritage site…’
Bandyopadhyay responded to Chief Minister Banerjee’s warning to start an agitation by saying, ‘Visva Bharati will not say anything about the CM’s comments.’
Three of these plaques, according to a senior university instructor, were installed on the grounds of the main campus.
Sukanta Majumdar, the state president of the BJP, told reporters, ‘Tagore is everywhere in Santiniketan and Visva Bharati. Everyone knows that without Tagore, Santiniketan would cease to exist. Mamata Banerjee, the leader of the TMC, is stirring up controversies in order to advance her political career.’
CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim said, ‘While Prime Minister Narendra Modi makes people of the country believe that credit for all the achievements is due to him, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee harbours the same thought as her photo is inscribed in every project of the state and every state-organised event. In the process, the sons of Bengal who made the state proud are being ignored,’ he said.
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