Flowers for planning

When Rabindranath Tagore was setting up Visva Bharati, the university in Santiniketan, he had offered plots of land to many an eminent professor, lawyer, doctor of that time to build houses around the university area. The idea was to grow a community of intellectuals around the university which was being built literally in the middle of the boondocks.

My maternal grandfather who was a lawyer empanelled with Visva Bharati was among the 150-odd individuals who were allotted these plots of land about 75 years ago. On the western side of our plot, was a plot given to economist A K Dasgupta. After his death in 1992, his son and economist Partha Dasgupta and daughter Alakananda Patel (wife of former RBI governor I G Patel) decided to return the plot of land with the one storey house to Visva Bharati for use by the university. Many heirs of those allotted these plots (on a 100-year-lease) return them if there is no possibility of their heirs using the estate.

Subsequent to this, Arjun Sengupta and I G Patel in their capacity as economic advisors to the government were instrumental in establishing a unit of the erstwhile Planning Commission in Visva Bharati to undertake research and supply inputs to the Planning Commission. It was decided that the unit would be housed there and was named the AK Dasgupta Centre for Planning and Development.

After the dismantling of the Planning Commission, the centre continued to do the same work for NITI Aayog. The website of the centre describes its main work as “undertaking research on rural development, women and child development, women empowerment, rural health, agriculture, impact assessment of various government-sponsored programmes in social sector”.

For outsiders, it is not possible to find out what or how much of all this is getting done because all buttons on the A K Dasguta Centre website lead back to the home page and say nothing of the research or projects being undertaken.

What the centre does seem to take seriously is their mandate of conducting “national seminars”. This year, the date was February 1 and the topic? No prizes for guessing: “Paradigms of Development”. Having been a student of economics myself I know how when all other topics prove elusive or difficult to find speakers on, this one can always be relied on. 

Before the day of the seminar a truck load of bamboos were brought in to create a makeshift shamiana. Plastic chairs with faux satin coverings, coffee machine and even a generator — all arrived for a 50-strong group of participants. A gate was created at the head of the road in true wedding style to welcome the “delegates”. 

The evening before saw the arrival of another minivan loaded with marigold garlands. So the strings of saffron marigolds (being in season and not necessarily to reflect the political leanings of the current vice-chancellor) were entwined on the expansive fence of the centre. The makeover made the centre look like it was ready to welcome a baraat. But the final touches were yet to be done. Late in the night, the garden of the centre came alive with fairy lights in blue and green all ready for the seminar the next day.

All those who live in Kolkata or have visited recently know how Mamata loves these fairy lights. It gives the city an air of festivity round the year. But for a university? Anyway, the children from a slum close by were highly appreciative. They looked at the centre and exclaimed “it looks just like a wedding”. NITI Aayog funds well spent, I thought to myself.