The Visva-Bharati has had a glorious past and a controversial present. In the recent past, one of its former vice chancellors, Dilip Sinha, had to go to prison on charges of malpractice. Around the same time, Sabujkali Sen, a professor and head of the department of philosophy and comparative religion, had to complain to the chief minister after she was allegedly roughed up by a student leader.
In the last one decade or so, successive vice chancellors, keen to buy peace with the students, teachers and employees, often yielded to their irrational demands. Relaxation of admission criterion to allow local students with less than minimum qualifications was common place. Vice chancellors were known to cancel examinations and ordering fresh ones because that’s what the students wanted, even by over-ruling the department head.
Over a period of time, the Visva-Bharati, though a Central university and blessed with the great heritage of Tagore, became a hunting ground of vested interests, catering mostly to local people. Barring a few departments like Kala Bhavana, other departments were reduced to churning out degree of little or no significance. Shocked at these developments, eminent personalities like artists KG Subramaniyam, Somnath Hore, Riten Majumdar, writer Mahasweta Devi, academicians Amlan Dutta, Amiya Deb, Shibnarayan Ray and many others had appealed to the Prime Minister and the President of India to put a stop on the chaos in Visva-Bharati.
Responding to similar appeals, the then President APJ Abdul Kalam ordered a High Level Committee (HLC) to go into the problems of Visva-Bharati and suggest ways to mend ways. Headed by Gopal Krishna Gandhi, the HLC consisting Amlan Dutta, Romila Thapar and others had chalked out a roadmap to make it a centre of excellence. The Centre granted an aid of Rs 95 crore to help the university take some initiatives along those lines.
Compared to other state universities in West Bengal, the Visva-Bharati is much better off on the funds front. In the 11th Plan, it got Rs 57 crore as grant under the head of General Development, Rs 79 crore to expand the existing facilities to accommodate more students from the OBC category, another Rs 5 crore to renovate and upgrade the Tagore museums and finally the one time grant of Rs 95 crore to pursue the goals set by the HLC report. As a senior professor says, “Lack of funds is not the issue here. We have got plenty of money. The challenge is how to make good use of it.”
The additional grant meant creating new posts, new jobs which meant a bonanza for some, observed another professor. Indeed, the sudden grant and its quick but proper utilisation made a senior professor subject to a CBI probe. It was in the mid-1990s, when Sabyasachi Bhattacharjee was the vice chancellor.
Stung by criticism by the then vice chancellor of Delhi University suffering from lack of funds, the HRD ministry granted ad-hoc fund to all central universities including Visva-Bharati to augment their library stocks with a promise of more funds if this could be utilised within a stipulated time. But the post of the chief librarian had been lying vacant for quite some time. So, the vice chancellor asked Shyamal Sarkar, a senior professor of English, to take up the additional responsibility of chief librarian. Sarkar completed the task within the stipulated period. As a recognition of his good work, the university got further grant from UGC to set up computer network for the library. But some employees in conjunction with the local suppliers of books were up in arms against Sarkar alleging corrupt practices as the books were mostly purchased from publishers bypassing local vendors.
When Sabyasachi Bhattacharjee left midway through his term, new vice chancellor Dilip Sinha ordered a CBI probe against Sarkar which gave him a clean chit. A heartbroken Sarkar died after some time.
Somendranath Bandopadhyaya, a retired professor and contemporary of late Shyamal Sarkar, lamented that the university never acknowledged its error in public and apologised to Sarkar.
This time the employees have demanded a CBI inquiry into the doings of the present vice chancellor Rajat Kanta Ray. They have alleged that that the vice chancellor often resorted to nepotism while recruiting people. But the same leaders were recently busy canvassing the case of one of their candidates for a post in the Rabindra Bhavana museum and putting pressure on the authorities for his appointment. The candidate in question had been a student leader for some time and was applicant to as many as five posts in the Rabindra Bhavana. He was even taken to the house of artist Jogen Chowdhury, who was on the selection board to lobby his case. Eventually his candidature was rejected. Similarly, the recent trend in purchases by the university has given much reason for suppliers to be upset as is evident from the complaints aired by employees. As one insider said, “Perhaps the present agitation has its roots in this sort of incidents.”
This is the second part of a three-part series.
