Tag: Visva-Bharati University

Visva-Bharati spends `40L fighting cases against its staff

All the cases were filed after Professor Bidyut Chakraborty took over as the vice-chancellor. This has happened at a time when the varsity has received the heritage tag from UNESCO.

May 12, 2023

VBU notice to Amartya Sen on unauthorised land

On 24 January, the joint registrar of the estate office of VBU has issued a notice regarding leased plot number 201 at Sripalli, Shantiniketan (mouza Surul, JL-104) stating that it has been found from physical survey and land records that 13 decimals of land belong to Visva-Bharati in LR Plot number 1900/ 2487.

January 26, 2023

Tunnel-vision

Setting up of a second campus and a change of name can only obfuscate the core of the crisis, which as yet remains unaddressed. The theft of Tagore’s Nobel medal is a crime that has been hanging fire for the past 18 years (March 2004). The authorities must of necessity get to the root of the malaise. To rename Visva-Bharati University is at best a half-hearted attempt at self-preservation; at worst a cosmetic change that will not improve Visva-Bharati

February 1, 2022

100-year journey~II

The Constitution of the Visva-Bharati University designated Visva-Bharati as an Indian, Eastern and Global cultural centre.

June 14, 2021

Visva-Bharati in the rut

It is hard not to wonder whether Tagore’s legacy has been trashed fair and square when Prof Chakraborty admits in a rare moment of candour that “Visva-Bharati University has become a haven for thieves and dacoits”.

March 21, 2021

Visva-Bharati University continues to call Amartya Sen illegal holder of its land

Visva-Bharati registrar Ashok Mahato on Saturday asked for measurements university campus and the land belonging to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

January 17, 2021

BJP engaging Visva-Bharati in dirty politics, says Mamata Banerjee at Bolpur’s mega rally

Addressing a huge gathering during her mega rally in West Bengal's Bolpur, Mamata Banerjee also accused BJP of insulting Rabindranath Tagore.

December 29, 2020

Amartya Sen married thrice, left India, has no right to speak: BJP’s Dilip Ghosh

Dilip Ghosh's remark has come at the time when Amartya Sen was accused of illegally registering a part of Visva-Bharati University's land under his own name.

December 29, 2020

Despite VC’s letter, TMC maintains Mamata Banerjee not invited to Visva-Bharati centenary celebrations

After Narendra Modi addressed the Visva-Bharati centenary celebrations, TMC had alleged that Mamata Banerjee did not get a call to attend the event.

December 24, 2020

‘Factual errors’: TMC hits out at PM Modi over attempt to link Tagore and Gujarat

'Tagore's brother who was in Gujarat was not the oldest brother. His wife's name was Gyanadanandini, not what the PM said. The story about Gyanadanandini and the sari pallu is a myth, not true,' Bengal minister Bratya Bose said.

December 24, 2020

‘Privilege to remember virtue of this taphobhoomi’: PM Modi at Visva-Bharati University centenary celebrations

'For India, the dream that Gurudev had dreamed of, it is a kind of adorable place to give continuous energy to the country to embody that dream,' PM Modi said.

December 24, 2020

High Court & VB

The court has directed the committee to look into different aspects of the university’s functioning ~ “fundamentally in the mode of mediation and conciliation among the different stakeholders”.

September 21, 2020

Colourful Crime

The immediate trigger for the cancellation at Santiniketan ~ where the event is a huge crowd-puller ~ is the Centre’s advisory to avoid an assembly of people in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

March 8, 2020

Paramilitary in V-B

In the context of the ViceChancellor, Professor Bidyut Chakraborty’s request to the Union home ministry, it is hard not to wonder whether there has been an alarming deterioration of security, that may not be apparent on the face of it.

November 15, 2019

Fair and (Un)Lovely

More accurately, Visva-Bharati took over organisation of the Pous Mela in 1951 when it was declared a central university.

June 9, 2019

Campus comeuppance

Visva-Bharati University grapples with a cruel irony yet again. The legacy of Tagore is in tatters with the five-year jail terms awarded to a former Vice-Chancellor, a former Registrar, and a former lady lecturer of the Mathematics department.

February 28, 2019

Helming Visva-Bharati

A technically rudderless central university finally has an academic at the helm. The fact that Visva-Bharati University had to make do without a Vice-Chancellor since 2016 is testament to the overwhelming chaos within. And also perhaps the Centre’s lack of interest in and the disgust with the institution’s functioning. Bidyut Chakraborty, Professor of Political Science...

October 16, 2018