West Bengal: Protesters slam Visva-Bharati for harassing Amartya Sen

SANTINIKETAN: A group of around 200 people converged on the Visva-Bharati campus in Santiniketan on Friday to register their protest against what they termed "continued aggression" against Nobel laureate Amartya Sen by the university authorities.
The gathering - comprising ashramites, students and ex-students of Visva-Bharati, apart from several luminaries from Kolkata - was in response to the university serving an eviction notice to Sen on April 19, asking him to vacate by May 6 (Saturday) 13 decimals of land within the 1.38 acres that Pratichi, his ancestral house, stands on. VB says these 13 decimals are illegally occupied, which Sen has denied.
The rally was held two days after CM Mamata Banerjee exhorted her cabinet colleagues and people of Bengal to protest against efforts to take possession of Sen's land.
Deeply concerned by canards spread by VB: Protesters
The protesters who converged on the Visva-Bharati campus on Friday marched with Rabindrasangeet on their lips, holding up placards condemning the university over the eviction row.
"We are deeply concerned by the canards spread by Visva-Bharati against the world-renowned academician," said senior gastroenterologist Abhijit Chowdhury, who participated in the march. "Visva-Bharati has even threatened to apply force. We fear the purpose behind all this is to silence Sen and prevent him from airing his views on a whole range of issues," he added.
Swapan Kumar Ghosh, a former employee of Visva-Bharati and a Santiniketan resident, said: "The way the Visva-Bharati authorities behaved with Amartya Sen is very unfortunate. How can they forget his and his family's contribution?" Santabhanu Sen, a long-time resident of Santiniketan, said: "We must protest now." Chowdhury pointed out that it was not just locals who had turned up to register their protest, but even residents of neighbouring villages and other parts of the state.
The university authorities questioned how the protest could be allowed in an area in which the Bolpur executive magistrate had initiated proceedings under Section 145 of the Criminal Procedure Code and directed for status quo to be maintained until further directions. On Thursday, Visva-Bharati's acting registrar, Manabendranath Saha, had written to the Bolpur SDO, drawing his attention to scheduled protest gatherings in spite of the order to local cops to enforce peace and tranquillity in the area.
PRO Mahua Banerjee said: "The matter is in court. We respect the law of the land and the court's verdict. We have written to competent authorities about the developments. How can an assembly take place in area under Section 145? It appears that the section applies to VB only, and not to those who are bringing in people to the area."