Visva Bharati V-C gets clean chit

Vice-Chancellor of the Visva Bharati University has got a near clean chit.

Prof Rajat Kanta Ray,Vice-Chancellor of the Visva Bharati University,Santiniketan,has got a near clean chit from the inquiry committee examining the allegations against him and probing the affairs of the varsity founded by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

However,the Union Human Resource Development HRD Ministry will take a final view on the committees report after the Prime Ministers Office gives its opinion on it. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is the Chancellor of the Visva Bharati University,which gets special and additional funds from the Centre to maintain itself as a centre of excellence.

In fact,the fact-finding committee was set up by the University Grants Commission in November last year at the behest of the Prime Minister. With agitations stalling the varsity functioning for days last year,the PM had assured the employees union,Karmi Sabha,of an impartial and fair probe. Following this,the strike was called off and a fact-finding committee instituted.

While this committee has exonerated Ray of all allegations of financial irregularities made against him,it has conceded that there may be instances of routine administrative lapses by him,case in point being the failure to hold as many meetings of the Executive Committee as stipulated. The one thing which could be counted as an act of omission by the V-C would be the appointment of a consultant who,though quite eligible,turned out to be a distant relative of the V-C.

The clean chit for Ray,however,could not have come at a more appropriate time. With the country celebrating the 150th anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore this year and Sanitiketan at the centre of the huge campaign designed around the event and Assembly elections also due in West Bengal next year,the government could do without controversies around the varsity. That apart,Ray is set to complete his term at Visva Bharati in June next year.

The varsity ran into controversy last year with the agitating employees union making a series of allegations against the V-C,ranging from illegal appointments to financial irregularities like claiming of false medical and travel bills. Accusing Ray of claiming at least Rs 10 lakh in false medical bills,the union has been pressing for a CBI probe into the corruption charges and demanding that either he should resign or be asked to go on leave immediately.

The V-C has an illustrious background,though. His grandfather Kamakshya Ray was a contemporary of Rabindranath Tagore in Santiniketan and his father the former home secretary of West Bengal. A student of history at Presidency College where he later went on to become one of the longest serving departmental heads of the college,he was appointed V-C of the Visva Bharati University by the then President A P J Abdul Kalam.