Mamata at Santiniketan on Saturday. Picture by Amit Datta

Santiniketan, March 27: She came, she saw and she turned Tagore’s abode of peace into one of turmoil.

The scene at Visva-Bharati — which till yesterday wore a sombre look — changed with the arrival of Mamata Banerjee late last night.

The Trinamul Congress chief turned on the loudspeakers, shattering the midnight calm. Silent marches with rallyists shuffling uneasily and hanging their heads in shame were replaced by fiery speeches by Mamata. She led a bunch of students, observing an indefinite hunger strike, and demanded an immediate CBI inquiry into the theft of Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel medal.

Mamata announced that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, also the chancellor of Visva-Bharati University, was keen to visit Santiniketan “very soon” to “examine the overall situation… personally”.

She accused the university authorities of “gross negligence” in making proper security arrangements at the Rabindranath Tagore Memorial Museum. “Just see the state of law and order situation in this state,” she thundered.

“It appears from the theft that nothing is safe in Bengal,” Mamata added, taking a dig at the Left Front government.

At a news conference today, Mamata said she was here not as a political leader but as an individual. “Tagore is much above politics. Please do not bring in dirty politics into this unfortunate incident.”