The Centre has asked Visva-Bharati University to remove the plaque installed on its premises to mark the UNESCO heritage tag to Santiniketan after a huge row erupted over the absence of Rabindranath Tagore’s name from it. Now, the University has formed a six-member committee to draft the Bengali version of the detailed text in English and Hindi sent by the Union Education Ministry to inscribe on plaques installed by former vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty.
The Education Ministry has told the University to replace the existing plaques with ones that will have the name of the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
According to news agency IANS, a university insider confirmed that a communication from the Education Ministry has come in this regard seeking the immediate removal of three plaques which have the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former VB vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty on it.
Director of Culture, Amal Pal is heading the six-member committee. The panel comprises Amal Pal, four other teachers — Acting Director of the Publishing department Amrit Sen, Hindi teacher Shakuntala Mishra, Bengali teacher Manabendra Mukhopadhyay, History teacher Anil Kumar, and the Special Officer at Rabindra Bhavana, Nilanjan Bandyopadhyay, as reported by the Telegraph.
Days after Santiniketan got the UNESCO tag on September 17, three plaques commemorating the honour came up across the campus that had the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former VB vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty but did not mention Tagore’s name who was the founder of Santiniketan and Visva Bharati, as reported by news agency PTI.
This triggered an uproar from students, faculty and political parties across the state. On October 26, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked the University to immediately change the plaques or face indefinite protests by Trinamool Congress activists on the campus.
Chakrabarty’s five-year term ended on November 8 after which the protests were finally withdrawn.
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