India News | Mamata Asks Centre to Immediately Remove Plaques Without Tagore's Name

Kolkata, Oct 30 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday demanded the removal of the "insulting plaques" which omit the name of Rabindranath Tagore from Visva Bharati's stone tablets commemorating UNESCO's award of World Heritage Site to the Santiniketan-based university.

She said the current plaques were an "arrogant display of self-absorbed narcissism". Plaques put up by Visva Bharati last week have the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as chancellor of the university and vice-chancellor Prof Bidyut Chakraborty.

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Since Friday, TMC party workers have been protesting in front of the university demanding removal of the plaques.

"Abrasive and arrogant display of self-absorbed narcissism continues in what was once the Gurudev's abode!! UNESCO recognises the world heritage of Santiniketan, but the local headman of today continues to flaunt his own little name in memorial pieces," she said in a statement.

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"For God's sake, remove the insulting plaques which erase out the name of Rabindranath Tagore from the face of the institution that the poet had so painstakingly founded!! Show some dignity and humility!! The ruling dispensation at Delhi should take corrective action forthwith," she added.

On Saturday, the CM requested the Centre to remove the recently installed plaques for not bearing the name of Visva Bharati founder Rabindranath Tagore.

On Sunday, Chakraborty had written to Banerjee stating that work was underway to "prepare" a plaque retaining UNESCO's declaration of Santiniketan as a world heritage site and in adherence to Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) guidelines.

Chakraborty called upon her "not to continue to form your opinion on the basis of what your sycophants convey".

"I wonder whether you are perturbed that in the plaque, Rabindranath does not figure. I just would like to draw your attention to our difficulties," Chakraborty said.

Soon after that, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, while referring to the vice-chancellor's letter to Banerjee, called upon Visva Bharati authorities to set right the omission of Tagore's name on the plaques.

Adhikari said, "Rather than issuing statements, the VC should first focus on setting right the mistake in the plaque which did not have Tagore's name. Without Tagore, Santiniketan would not have happened. The emotions and sentiments of millions of Bengalis are involved when we talk about Tagore.

"He should keep in mind what Tagore is to us. How come the UNESCO heritage plaque (installed by Visva-Bharati) omitted the name of Gurudev?"

Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, "The VC is making unwarranted, unsavoury comments to raise his points before Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his own interest and resorting to cheap theatrics. He has hurt the sentiments of every resident of the state and country by ignoring Tagore in the commemorative plaque."

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)