VBU eviction notice to Amartya: Scholars, students write to Murmu

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the Chancellor of this central university, President Murmu is VBU’s paridarsaka (Visitor).

The letter stated that the VBU administration’s alleged “illegal action” was following orders from the varsity’s vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty. The letter also stated the move was to allegedly “captalise” on Sen’s “ideological differences” with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre.

“Such an illegal action of the University administration under the instruction of Professor Bidyut Chakrabarty can admit of no interpretation other than that he is trying to capitalise on the ideological differences that Professor Sen has with the ruling NDA government of India by accusing Prof. Sen and that the vice-chancellor is wrongfully trying to get the support of the government as well as trying to shift the focus of the government on his misdeeds to some other issues which are imaginary…,” the letter said.

In April, VBU had issued an eviction notice asking Sen to vacate 13 decimals of land at his ancestral home, ‘Pratichi’, in Birbhum district’s Santiniketan. The university threatened to take back the land which it claimed was under Sen’s unauthorised occupation. Sen’s lawyers approached the district court against the eviction order. The court is yet to issue any order on the matter. The next hearing in the case is on June 13.

“With the hope that your learned and judicious mind would surely be able to grasp the ill motives behind the action of Professor Bidyut Chakrabarty, we pray before your authority to kindly take appropriate action against him immediately,” the letter said. VBU’s acting public relations officer Mahua Banerjee was not available for comments on this.

The signatories of the letter included James K Boyce, Emeritus Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Janine Rodgers, alumna of Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva; Prabhat Patnaik, Professor Emeritus at Jawaharlal Nehru University; and Rabindranath Tagore’s descendant Supriya Tagore.