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| Truce in Visva-Bharati, for now |
| Rajat Roy / Kolkata Nov 06, 2009, 00:22 IST |
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Visva-Bharati, founded by Rabindranath Tagore and now a Central university, which had been closed since September 24, reopened today. It took an appeal from the Prime Minister, who is also the chancellor of the university, to coax all the striking elements on the campus to return to work.
The Prime Minister has never interfered in the affairs of Visva-Bharati before. But the situation called for his healing touch. for more than ten days, workers and teachers in the university had been locked in a tussle with the vice chancellor, Rajat Kanta Ray,showing how a premier centre of education can become a place for power politics of the ugliest sort.
In response to the allegations of the faculty as well as workers, Rajat Kanta Ray had demanded a thorough enquiry by an external agency not just into his conduct but also against the ‘wrong-doings’ of some of the workers.
This caused leaders of the Congress, TMC and CPI(M) to visit the campus. Congress leader Subrata Mukherjee and Nirbed Roy made common cause with the workers criticising the ‘intransigent role’ of the vice chancellor. Mamata Banerjee shot off letters to the Prime
Minister and HRD minister asking for their intervention. Even the CPI(M) MP from Bolpur under which Santiniketan falls, Ramchandra Dom sent a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office seeking his intervention.
Rajat Kanta Ray was in Delhi to meet the PM to tell him how things had come to such a pass. He also met Finance Minister Pranab Mukheree.
He has already met the Governor of West Bengal Gopal Krishna Gandhi, who is also the Rector of the university, and apprised him of the situation there. The vice chancellor also has gone on record saying that all these agitations have their genesis into the recent moves initiated by him which in turn stirred up the “hornet’s nest” in the university.
The main charges against the vice chancellor levelled by the employees are as follows: corruption, financial mismanagement and misappropriation of funds; and nepotism in recruitment.
A cursory examination of the charges as elaborated in a 10 page letter to the Prime Minister, suggests the most important charges relate to the mismanagement of the funds and grants.
The letter has been written jointly by the workers’ union and the teachers association. For the last several months, Rajat Kanta Ray has been ill and the university is routinely paying for his treatment. The employees in their letter to the Prime Minister have claimed that the university has “had to bear the burden of huge medical bill.”
This is the first of a three-part series. Tomorrow: Visva-Bharati squanders a legacy, slips into chaos
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