On November 23, 2022, students of Vishwabharati University gheraoed Vice Chancellor Vidyut Chakraborty’s office after making serious allegations against him. Photo Credit: PTI
Visva Bharati University Vice-Chancellor Professor Bidyut Chakraborty, who was gheraoed by a section of students for nearly 10 hours, may leave his office in the early hours of Thursday, an official said.
The security personnel took him to his official residence at around 2 am
SFI leader Somnath So claimed that Chakraborty’s security guards beat up the protesters and forcibly removed the cordon.
The official of the central university, however, said that no force was used.
Responding to a question, he said a small group of students are camping near the vice-chancellor’s residence and officials are monitoring the situation.
A section of students gheraoed Mr Chakraborty’s office inside the campus around 4 pm on Wednesday.
Mr Chakraborty, who was appointed vice-chancellor in 2018, alleged that the agitators “misbehaved” with him, but did not succumb to their pressure tactics.
The VC insisted, “They all want me and the teachers to be humiliated because I sought to bring discipline in the academic and administrative affairs of Visva-Bharati.”
Mr So said the students had submitted a charter of demands to the vice-chancellor’s office 10 days ago regarding ways to improve the academic functioning of the institute.
“Since there was no response, we wanted to discuss the matter with him. But they abused us after which the gherao started.
Teachers’ body Visva Bharati University Faculty Association alleged in a statement on Thursday that Professor Bidyut Chakraborty was solely responsible for the outrage of the aggrieved students.
“The entire Visva-Bharati community strongly supports the students’ demonstration and demands the resignation of Prof. Chakraborty as the only solution to this situation,” it said.
Commenting on Visva Bharati’s situation, ruling Trinamool Congress leader and senior minister Firhad Hakim claimed that it is unfortunate that Visva Bharati is in limelight for controversies.
“Delhi governors do a long screening process before arriving at a name (as VC of Vishwabharati)… possibly a person with RSS leanings. Even if the growing complaints against the person among students If so, it is not replaced.” With a non-controversial and efficient person,” said Mr. Hakim.
Reacting to this, BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya alleged that TMC sees the ghost of RSS in everything.
“The people of West Bengal are not turning to the TMC to listen to lectures on Tagore,” he said.
Tagore, the first Asian Nobel laureate, founded Visva-Bharati in 1921. It was declared a Central University and an Institute of National Importance in 1951 by an Act of Parliament.