BIG FIGHT OVER A SMALL PIECE OF LAND IN BENGAL
Visva Bharati University wants Amartya Sen to return the land.
In its centenary year, Rabindranath Tagore’s iconic abode has snowballed into a raging controversy over a piece of land, which, in normal circumstances, would not have created a flutter.
But this is no ordinary land, this is a slice of earth—13 decimal to be precise and costing less than Rs 50 lakh—which currently is in the possession of one of India’s most celebrated economists, Amartya Sen and the Visva Bharati University is saying it is illegal and should be returned.
Sen disagrees, he says he has the papers and that this land was given to his father by the university officials many moons ago.
This is what is on the paper. What is not on the paper is that the piece of land has turned into a fight between the Trinamool Congress and the Bhartiya Janata Party. Sen and the Visva Bharati, whose Vice Chancellor, Bidyut Chakrabarty is seemingly close to the BJP. Chakrabarty, ever since he assumed power, has run into several troubles with students, some of them backed by Left-wing parties and a large chunk backed by the state’s ruling TMC.
This is not all. Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also jumped into the fray. She picked up land records from the state department and assured Sen that she would back him to the hilt.
Chakrabarty is down but not out, he insists Sen must return the land. Experts claim the land is very small in size and should not have created such a huge rift between the university authorities and the celebrated economist, who lives in a bungalow, titled Pratichi, close to the university. Sen and Santiniketan are synonymous with each other. He was named Amartya by Tagore himself and the plot was leased out to Sen’s family by Visva Bharati in 1943, two years after the death of Tagore, who brought the economist’s maternal grandfather, Kshitimohon Sen, to the campus in 1908; and his father was leased 1.38 acres of land by the Visva Bharati University.
But then, Sen is not a pushover case. His case is special but the issue of land encroachment has been going on for a long time in Santiniketan. There are many in Santiniketan who had taken land at Re 1 for a 99-year lease from the Tagore family. And now, the Visva Bharati University wants them to renegotiate the lease, but they are not keen.
However, many feel Chakrabarty should not have raked up the issue of Sen. But Chakrabarty is defiant, he says he has documents that prove that Sen has illegally occupied that extra piece of land. In a country where politicians and their close associates are often berated for routinely occupying additional land without papers, Sen’s alleged crime is not even worth a fight. But the university authorities have been egged on by Chakravarty to go hammer
and tongs against the octogenarian Nobel Laureate.
It has, actually turned out to be a facepalm moment for the university, and also the BJP. It needs a mention here that the university’s chancellor is no other than the Prime Minister himself. Narendra Modi has fondly planned an extension of Visva Bharati in the hills of Nainital where India’s most celebrated bard wrote portions of his coveted Gitanjali that got him the Nobel prize. Many believe that the allegation against Sen is an attempt by Chakrabarty to harass the economist, ostensibly because Sen is a fierce critic of the Central government. Chakrabarty, since his appointment as the VC in November 2018, has been at the centre of multiple controversies at the university, where classes are shut for over three years.
The slugfest and Chakrabarty’s role, claim those in the know, have come under the scanner of the Union education ministry. Chakrabarty, it is reliably learnt, has expressed his desire to shift as the vice chancellor of Delhi University but the BJP has not said yes to his messages.
So, let’s return to the slugfest.
Once it was between Sen and Chakrabarty, but now the fight has spilled over. This week, Banerjee visited Visva Bharati and personally handed over land holding records of Sen’s residence to the Nobel Laureate. She told reporters that Sen was the rightful leasehold owner of 1.38 acres of land and that Visva Bharati’s claims about Sen illegally occupying some 13 decimal of land, which should be returned to the university is “false” and “made with an intention to humiliate Sen”. Banerjee handed over records pertaining to 1959 to Sen, and also provided Z+ category security to the veteran economist.
The matter has not ended here.
Sen also held a presser and told reporters that he felt humiliated at the way Visva Bharati officials were repeatedly visiting his home and asking for papers. In a note, the university officials said Sen must follow the law of the land and should not “grab additional land” just because he is a celebrated economist. He said the state government has informed him that an internal inquiry by the Birbhum district administration has debunked Visva-bharati’s allegation that Sen is unauthorisedly occupying the land. “Documents available with our land and land revenue department show 1.38 acres or 138 decimals were leased out to Ashutosh Sen, father of Amartya Sen, in 1943 by Visva-bharati,” an officer told this reporter. “It was a long-term lease.”
But Visva Bharati argues that only 125 decimals, not 138 decimals, were leased out to the Sen family. Worse, a letter sent by the university warned Sen of “severe embarrassment” if he fails to return the land.
“You are in possession of 1.38 acre (138 decimals) of land which is in excess of your legal entitlement of 1.25 acre (125 decimals). Kindly return the land to Visva Bharati as early as possible since the application of the laws of the land will cause embarrassment to you and also to Visvabharati which you endear so much. As you know, the procedure for reclamation of illegally-occupied land follows the well-established laws of the land,” says the letter from the university’s estate department, dated January 27.
Students in Shantiniketan have thrown their weight behind Sen. Hundreds have been visiting the economist’s home to pledge their support in his fight against the university authorities. Many professors in Santiniketan have also blamed Chakrabarty for raking up what they felt was a total non-issue.
Chakrabarty stands isolated, he has been blamed several times for trying to saffronise Santiniketan.
Members of the Tagore family have expressed their unhappiness at Chakrabarty. Supriya Tagore, great grandson of Rabindranath Tagore’s elder brother Satyendranath Tagore, told a Kolkata-based newspaper: “I can’t believe that Visvabharati is accusing Amartya Sen of such a petty issue as land encroachment. Do we have to believe now that a person of the stature of Sen has encroached on land? There is no comparison between Amartya Sen and the people levelling such dirty charges at him.”
Santiniketan, a sylvan abode Tagore created over a century ago as a melting pot of global ideas, is now discussing illegal land grabbing by a celebrated economist. This is grossly wrong, said Tagore.
After all, Santiniketan is special, its alumni list Sen and filmmaker Satyajit Ray.
But studies have taken a back seat and politics has taken over. The ruling TMC has sent out a silent message that it is trying hard to safeguard the heritage of Bengal’s greatest cultural icon from the BJP that seeks to trample on Bengali sensitivities. And the BJP wants to take charge of Santiniketan.
Stuck in the middle are thousands of students whose classes have been disrupted for over three years. This is certainly not a good sign.