West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday wrote a letter to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen expressing “anguish and surprise” over recent developments where the Visva Bharati University has allegedly listed his name among unauthorised occupants of land in Santiniketan. Ms. Banerjee said she expresses solidarity with Prof. Sen against the “bigotry of the majoritarians in this country”, and assured her support to him in the “battle that have made you an enemy of these forces of untruth”.
“Kindly count me as your sister and friend in your just war against intolerance and totalitarianism. Let us not be daunted by their untrue accusation, and unfair attacks. We shall overcome,” Ms. Banerjee’s letter to Prof. Sen said.
Referring to Mr. Sen’s maternal grandfather Khitimohan Sen, who was one of the early leading settlers in Santiniketan and Ashutosh Sen, a noted educationalist who had his famed house Pratichi built up in Santiniketan about eight decades ago, the CM emphasised that Prof. Sen’s family has been “weaved in the culture of Santiniketan, inalienably”. Ms. Banerjee said everyone is well aware of “your family’s deep and organic linkages with Santiniketan”
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So far there has been no official response from Visva Bharati administration in these developments. “Some nouveau invaders in Visva Bharati have now started raising surprising and completely baseless allegations about your familial properties, etc.,” Ms. Banerjee said in an oblique reference to the Visva Bharati administration
On Thursday, Ms. Banerjee told journalists that since Prof. Sen is “opposed to policies of BJP he is being targeted”. “ Do you really believe that Amartya Sen will occupy land? He is the pride of Bengal. It is unfortunate that he is being targeted. I seek to apologise to him,” she had said.