In the latest in the string of unpleasant events that have plagued the Visva-Bharati in its centenary year, unrest over the recent rustication of three students has led to the closure of its central office and results and admissions being put on hold.
The students — Somnath Sow and Falguni Pan of economics and Rupa Chakraborty of Hindustani classical music — were expelled for three years on August 23 for taking part in a campus protest back in January 2020. The three, already under suspension for about nine months, were charged with “gross indiscipline and misconduct”.
Following their expulsion, a group of students last Friday began a sit-in outside the home of Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty. This, in return, prompted the university to issue successive circulars on Monday saying admissions and the publication of results were being put on hold considering the Vice-Chancellor, whose physical presence was required for these processes, was “currently under siege”.
And on Tuesday morning, the central office of the university was locked up, apparently on the orders of the authorities — a move the V-C’s detractors said was aimed at again delaying salaries. Salaries are paid on the last day of every month but there have been unprecedented delays in the recent times.
The sit-in is likely to balloon into a larger confrontation between the authorities and a section of students with the Students’ Federation of India, which two of the expelled students belong to, and also the Visva-Bharati University Faculty Association, openly throwing their weight behind the protesters. The university PRO, the only official at the institution authorised to speak to the media, did not answer calls for queries on the situation on the campus.
Lengthy and emotional post
“I am concerned about the students and staff of this university,” educationist Sudripta Tagore, himself a former student of Visva-Bharati and a descendant of the Tagore family, told The Hindu on Tuesday. On Monday, he wrote a lengthy and emotional post on Facebook, saying during his student days, he had observed many Vice-Chancellors from close and they all had their distinct ways of dealing with such unrest.
“All these people had the same powers as any V-C of Visva-Bharati. I have often wondered what compelled them to discuss, debate with their students and staff? What compelled them sometimes to let go their personal egos and take a decision for some greater good? Today it is clear, they were civilised people. As stalwarts in their own fields, they had brought with them humility, a signature of a true academician. Above all, they all kept in mind that they had the burden of representing an institution founded by none other than Rabindranath Tagore,” Mr. Tagore wrote.
