Tension is once again brewing between the Centre and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal Government over the eviction notice to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen to vacate his house in Visva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan.
Visva-Bharati is the only Central University or centrally-funded institution which has the Prime Minister as its Chancellor, while all others are helmed by the President of India as their Chancellor or Visitor. Set up in 1921 by Rabindranath Tagore, Visva-Bharati is the only Central varsity in West Bengal.
Visva-Bharati had sent an eviction notice to Sen on April 19, asking him to vacate 13 decimals of the 1.38 acre land of his residence before May 6.
To protest the development, Mamata has asked State Ministers to begin a sit-in demonstration outside Sen’s house to protest against the university’s eviction order.
Earlier, the TMC and the BJP-led Centre had been in confrontation mode with daily squabbles over decisions by then Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who is now the Vice-President of India.
Visva-Bharati authorities have pasted the notice at the gate of the Nobel laureate’s house “Pratichi” and said that the university will use force, if necessary, to get the land vacated. “We don’t have any say in this regard as we don’t interfere in day-to-day administrative discharges of any university falling under the Central Government’s purview,” a top Union Education Ministry official told The Pioneer.
The present matter is the university’s internal matter and the Chancellor has been briefed about the issue in the present case as the alleged defaulter is a Bharat Ratna as well as Nobel laureate,” a top Union Education Ministry official told The Pioneer. Incidentally, the Bharat Ratna on Sen was bestowed during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government’s tenure in 1999.
Over 120 eminent people have written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemning the eviction notice and accused the university of harassing and humiliating Amartya Sen over the issue.
Sources said the TMC leader has asked MSME Minister Chandranath Sinha and local MLAs to lead the protest, which will be joined by Education Minister Bratya Basu and Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim. Banerjee, too, would start a sit-in demonstration in Shantiniketan over the issue. The date and time of the dharna will be decided in a couple of days.
“She asked them not to move from the spot even if the Central varsity sends bulldozers to take possession of the land. Bauls and other folk artists from the district must be involved in the demonstration, and various cultural programs should be organised there,” sources said as communicated by Mamata Banerjee to her party colleagues.
Singer Kabir Suman and painter Subhaprasanna will also join the programme on May 6 and 7. “The CM advised them not to move an inch even if Visva-Bharati sends bulldozers to take possession,” sources said.
The university has claimed that Amartya Sen is in possession of 1.38 acres of land on the campus, which is in excess of his legal entitlement of 1.25 acres. However Sen has confronted that most of the land he is holding in the campus was purchased from the market by his father while some other plots were taken on lease.