India News | Santiniketan Plaque Issue: BJP Leader Adhikari Urges Visva-Bharati to 'set Right Mistake'

Kolkata, Oct 29 (PTI) Opposition BJP in West Bengal on Sunday called upon Visva-Bharati authorities to set right the omission of Rabindranath Tagore's name in the plaque commemorating UNESCO World Heritage Site status to Santiniketan as it involved the sentiments of millions of Bengalis.

Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari made the remark while referring to Visva-Bharati vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty's open letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the issue.

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In the letter, Chakraborty had called upon the CM, "not to form opinion on the basis of what your sycophants convey" besides asking her "to apply her mind."

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 emotion and sentiments of millions of Bengalis are involved when we talk about Tagore.

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"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?" Adhikari said.

"I would not respond to all his comments in the letter now. The university should undo the plaque blunder first. Tagore does not belong to anybody, he belongs to all of us," the Nandigram MLA added.

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."

TMC Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen said the VC is speaking in a partisan way and transgressing his role as an academic.

In the letter to Mamata Banerjee, VC Bidyut Chakraborty said he wondered whether the CM is really perturbed about Tagore's name not featuring in the plaque.

Urging Banerjee to "please apply your mind," the VC said, "UNESCO declared Santiniketan as a World Heritage Site and we need to follow ASI instructions while preparing the plaque and we are doing it, the result of which will soon be visible."

On Saturday, the CM had requested the Centre to remove the recently installed plaques commemorating UNESCO World Heritage Site status to Santiniketan for not bearing the name of Visva-Bharati founder Rabindranath Tagore.

(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)