The Visva-Bharati University has called “absolutely wrong and ridiculous” and “politically motivated” the voices being raised against the placing of two plaques in Santiniketan to mark the heritage area of the campus. These plaques mention Chancellor Narendra Modi and Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty but not founder Rabindranath Tagore, something that detractors of the Vice-Chancellor term as “self-advertisement”.
“These plaques are absolutely temporary. They have been placed to demarcate the heritage area, and they carry the names of the Chancellor and the Vice-Chancellor purely for authentication. The two names are meant to show that Visva-Bharati owns the place — nobody should wonder who put up these plaques,” a senior Visva-Bharati official told The Hindu on Wednesday.
“These will be replaced as soon as ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) hands over formal plaques to us. What the ASI gives us will have to get UNESCO approval, which is likely to take time, maybe a year. It is unlikely what the ASI gives us will bear any person’s name, because that’s not how UNESCO usually describes a heritage site,” the official, who did not want to be named, said.
“There was no motive behind installing these plaques other than demarcating the heritage site. To attribute anything else is absolutely wrong and ridiculous and politically motivated. Having said that, there is nothing wrong in crediting Prime Minister Modi with Santiniketan earning the heritage tag from UNESCO — he not only worked towards it but had also donated ₹3 crore to Visva-Bharati in 2019. The money was used for the renovation of the heritage structures,” the official said.
The Visva-Bharati Public Relations Officer (PRO) too issued a statement saying the plaques were “purely temporary” and they would be replaced by UNESCO-approved plaques once they were received from the ASI.
In September, the town of Santiniketan — founded by members of the Tagore family, with Rabindranath himself setting up Visva-Bharati there over a 100 years ago — was included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Last week, the plaques appeared, demarcating the heritage area, which the critics of the V-C said was his attempt to ignore Tagore and promote himself. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh too said in a social media post: “Erasure of Nehru wasn’t enough. Now, erasure of Rabindranath Tagore also begins.”
“The Visva-Bharati administration has admitted that these plaques, lacking Rabindranath’s name, do not adhere to UNESCO’s guidelines and will be replaced soon. However, in an attempt to extend his tenure, the Vice-Chancellor unlawfully installed several such plaques, not using Acharya’s [Rabindranath Tagore’s] name while shamelessly promoting his own... He has even deployed security guards to protect these illegal plaques from public outrage,” Sudipta Bhattacharyya, president of the Visva-Bharati University Faculty Association, said.