Visva-Bharati ‘BJP defeat’ seminar topic stirs row

The Visva-Bharati authorities courted a major controversy after they uploaded a notice on the central university’s website on Wednesday morning about a virtual seminar, to be addressed by a senior Union government official on May 18, to detect the causes behind the whitewash of the BJP in the just concluded Assembly Election in West Bengal.

The proposed online event was the '35th Lecture' of the V-B in a series. The notice stated, "Visva-Bharati cordially invites you to the lecture by Prof. Sanjay Kumar, in the Visva-Bharati Lecture Series. The title of his talk is "Why BJP failed to win West Bengal Assembly Election?" Prof. Kumar is Joint Advisor, Niti Aayog, Govt. of India and formerly Director of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi.”

It added, "The lecture will be organized through online mode by using ZOOM on 18 May 2021 (Tuesday) at 4.00pm IST. Professor Bidyut Chakrabarty, Vice Chancellor, Visva-Bharati shall preside over the lecture. Zoom Meeting Joining Link: https:/zoom.us/91371997686 pwd ZWpKTTN3URcGdan NGX. Meeting ID: 913-7199

7686 and Passcode: 180521. All are welcome to join."

The political topic instantly infuriated people cutting across barriers at Shantiniketan and beyond. Supriyo Tagore, a family member of poet Rabindranath Tagore, whose brainchild V-B is, said, “Politics never existed in Visva Bharati. Rabindranath Tagore also did not like it. But politics has taken control of Visva Bharati now. It is unfortunate and an injustice.” Saoni Chakraborty, a student, alleged, "We condemn such events on the interests of a particular political party."

Dulal Chandra Ghosh, a V-B executive council member who is also a nominee of Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the central university: Narendra Modi, claimed, “The V-C is behind all such events to save his job. He initiates these exercises but blames the BJP.”

Hit by the massive uproar, the V-B authorities later replaced the notice with another stating, “Due to some unavoidable circumstances, this lecture is treated to be as cancelled for the time being.” Later the second notice could not be found also.