Kolkata: Days after BJP national vice-president and Lok Sabha member Dilip Ghosh threw in his lot with Visva Bharati University vice chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty, questioning Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen’s award, party MLA and economist Ashok Lahiri told ThePrint that Sen was the “nation’s pride” and that there was “no need to advertise” the ongoing land row between Sen and the Visva Bharati University.
Chakraborty has accused Sen of “illegally occupying” an extra 13 decimals of land within the university premises — claiming his legal entitlement to be 1.25 acres while the economist is occupying 1.38 acres — Sen has claimed that while originally 1.25 acres were gifted to his grandfather, the late Kshitimohan Sen, who had been the second vice chancellor of the university, his father, the late Asutosh Sen, also a professor at Visva Bharati later purchased the remaining 13 decimals.
The dispute over the land turned especially ugly after Sen reportedly said during an interview last month that Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo, Mamata Banerjee, had the ability to be the next PM.
Visva Bharati is a central university and the West Bengal government has been at odds with the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre for long. The two parties have also been vocally critical of each other in West Bengal, with the BJP making a strong attempt to win the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal, which it finally lost to the TMC.
Sen’s comments on Banerjee quickly tuned the land dispute into a political slugfest with Visva Bharati Mahua Banerjee taking potshots at the West Bengal CM and the TMC branding it as a “BJP pamphlet”.
Speaking to ThePrint Monday, Lahiri — a member of the 15th Finance Commission — said the land dispute was a legal problem and the law should take its course. “There is no need to advertise the issue,” he said. Earlier, Lahiri, while addressing a news conference in Jalpaiguri Saturday, had said, “Domestic issues are best resolved at home; public mudslinging should be avoided. Amartya Sen is the nation’s pride, I don’t need to give him any certificate, the Nobel committee has already done that.”
Both Lahiri and Sen are alumni of Kolkata’s Presidency College (now university).
A well-known economist, Lahiri had served as the Chief Economic Advisor under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and continued in the role when Dr. Manmohan Singh became the Prime Minister. He had also served as the chairman of Bandhan Bank and had stints in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He was first fielded by the BJP from Alipurduar in North Bengal in the 2021 assembly elections, but owing to internal protest, was moved to the Balurghat seat. A soft-spoken academician, Lahiri, has been praised by Chief Minister and political opponent Mamata Banerjee in the Legislative Assembly.
Few within Lahiri’s party, however, seem to subscribe to his views.
“We don’t want this public faceoff, the issue should be amicably sorted out between Visva Bharati and Amartya Sen. Mamata Banerjee walked into the issue and made it political,” said chief spokesperson for Bengal BJP, Shamik Bhattacharya.
Bhattacharya added: “So naturally Visva Bharati had to respond on political lines. It’s a central university, why should Mamata Banerjee interfere? Amartya Sen quite often speaks out against Prime Minister Modi and the BJP. I just want to say, he will see the lotus bloom in his garden in Shantiniketan in 2024.”
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BJP vs TMC
The land dispute between Sen and Visva Bharati — a university set up by poet Rabindranath Tagore in West Bengal’s Bolpur in Birbhum district — was triggered by vice chancellor Chakraborty, when he sent two notices to Sen last month to either evict the “excess land” occupied by him or reach an understanding with the university,
On 24 January, Visva Bharati deputy registrar wrote to Sen, alleging his residence, Pratichi in Shantiniketan (Bolpur) has been built on 1.38 acres, of which 13 decimals are owned by Visva Bharati.
On 30 January, during an administrative visit, Mamata Banerjee called on Sen and handed over documents from the State’s Land and Revenue department, proving his ownership of the entire 1.38 acres occupied by him.
Days later, on 2 February, Visva Bharati’s public relations officer Mahua Banerjee issued a three-page press statement saying, “Visva Bharati is a Central University, we are better off without your blessings because we are used to the margdarshan (guidance) of the Prime Minister. We would like to request the Chief Minister to stop seeing through her ears and use her brain.”
While the CM is yet to respond to the statement, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh has said, “It wasn’t a press release by Visva Bharati against Mamata Banerjee, it was a political pamphlet made in the BJP arena. It doesn’t have balance, reality, decency, taste and that is not a surprise.”
বিশ্বভারতীর প্রেস রিলিজে যখন 'কবিগুরুর মার্গদর্শনে চলি' না বলে 'প্রধানমন্ত্রীর মার্গদর্শনে চলি' বলা হয়, বোঝাই যায়, এটি বিজেপির আখঢ়ায় তৈরি একটি রাজনৈতিক চিরকুট। এতে ভারসাম্য, বাস্তব, শালীনতা, রুচি থাকবে না, সেটাই স্বাভাবিক।
— Kunal Ghosh (@KunalGhoshAgain) February 1, 2023
The Visva Bharati PRO’s statement was also criticised by educationist and former vice chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University, Pabitra Sarkar, who told ThePrint that the words against the Chief Minister were a matter of grave concern, as it had fallen to the level of a street fight.
Meanwhile, BJP MP Dilip Ghosh said, “Amartya Sen is an icon, he shouldn’t get pulled into controversies like this, but should come out and make his stand clear if there is any truth to these allegations.”
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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