A hypercritical letter from an academic to a state chief minister, effervescent with political innuendos, seems to have brought the state’s ruling dispensation and sections of the state’s Opposition BJP on the same platform.

The four-page letter from Visva Bharati vice chancellor Professor Bidyut Chakraborty to chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday, purportedly asking the state government to return a stretch of road that runs through the campus, but taking the liberty of commenting on Trinamul Congress leaders put in jail for “stealing public money” was deemed as “unrelated” to the subject matter of the letter by Chakraborty’s detractors at the university and as a “reflection of his political ambition” by a section of BJP leaders.

“If you consider that stealing public money is a welcome practice, then certainly, you may not have the right kind of mindset to understand our concern,” Chakraborty wrote to the chief minister in the context of his urge to return the authority over the road in question. “Two of your senior ministers are in gaol; some of your trusted aides (even from Birbhum), in jail, including in Tihar Jail in Delhi,” Chakraborty, referring to Anubrata Mondal, went on to add.

“Your government appointed Vice Chancellor is also incarcerated with the alleged charge of misappropriating of (sic) money in exchange of public jobs,” the VC continued in reference to the arrest of North Bengal University VC, Subires Bhattacharya, arrested by the CBI in connection with the school recruitment scam.

“Your most vocal member of Parliament is being charged with activities which have already drawn the parliamentary ethics committee to examine the issue,” he added, obliquely referring to the on-going Mahua Moitra row. “Many of your prominent colleagues are alleged to have been involved in malpractices (the scam involving jobs in the education sector, ration scam, cow smuggling, land-grabbing etc) which are contrary to your standard of appropriate behaviour expected of those working for people,” Chakraborty’s sharply worded communication stated.

The letter was written at a time when the Trinamul Congress continues to hold an agitation outside the university premises in Santiniketan after Visva Bharati authorities ignored Mamata Banerjee’s ultimatum to remove the Unesco heritage tag commemoration plaques which have the names of Prime Minister-cum-Chancellor Narendra Modi and Chakraborty’s name inscribed on them but misses out on naming Rabindranath Tagore, the founder of the institution.

The 2.9-kilometer road in question was taken back by the state PWD on December 29, 2020 after ashramites appealed to Banerjee stating that university authorities had banned vehicles on the road, thus causing hardship. The road, connecting the university’s Siksha Bhavana to the Upasana Griha (Kaanch Mandir), splits the university into two and passes through the residences of stalwarts like Amartya Sen, Nandalal Bose and Shantidev Ghosh. In March, 2017, when Swapan Kumar Dutta was the officiating vice chancellor, Banerjee had handed over control of the road to the Visva-Bharati following repeated requests to that effect from the institution.

“You perhaps know that your sycophants preferred to keep you in the dark that the road which you took away from us just before the 2021 state assembly election was congested because of the haphazard parking of totos and also the presence of local vendors selling souvenirs,” Chakraborty wrote on Sunday justifying his restriction.

“We endeavoured hard to keep the road free from congestion for two reasons: a) the ICOMOS (International Council for monuments and Sites), which recommended Shantiniketan to be eligible for consideration for the World Heritage tag, in its report put this condition that Visva-Bharati needs to take control of this road passing through the Ashram; and the congestion was so bad that those who came to Santiniketan as tourists and visitors confronted serious problems even to move around the place on foot,” he stated, while adding, “nobody was disallowed to use the road and no two and four-wheelers is forbidden to ply on this road.”

The BJP has reacted sharply.

“All these, from setting up the plaques to writing political letters, is nothing more than an effort to establish himself as a staunch BJP worker in the eyes of the party leaders in Delhi,” BJP national secretary and Bolpur native, Anupam Hazra, snapped back. “Since Chakraborty’s tenure is coming to an end in November, he is desperately seeking an extension. These are his ways of pleasing leaders in Delhi. But he is greatly mistaken. That’s not how things work in our party,” Hazra, who even put up a sarcastic social media post bidding Chakraborty farewell without directly naming him, asserted.

“He has great political ambitions and is now into hectic lobbying with central and state leaders of the BJP to renew his tenure. He should have foregone his academic hat and directly joined politics earlier and not eyed a political position when his term is coming to an end and is unlikely to be renewed,” Hazra said. “He is one VC who has managed to make all political parties, from the TMC to the BJP, speak in one tune since, in his arrogance, he has disrespected everybody at the university, including Kaviguru himself,” Hazra went all blazing in retort.

Anupam Hazra's Facebook post on the Visva-Bharati plaque controversy. Facebook

Visva-Bharati insiders, too, echoed the sentiment. “What he wrote to the chief minister is unprecedented for an academic. His political jibes are totally unrelated to the subject matter of his letter. He was speaking more like a BJP spokesperson than a VC,” maintained Professor Sudipto Bhattacharya, president, Visva-Bharati University Faculty Association. “Talking of corruption, we have enough evidence of large-scale corruption taking place in this institution under his leadership. What’s more, the VC himself is tainted with charges of sexual harassment and has several criminal cases pending against him,” Bhattacharya lashed out.

“Vice Chancellor @VisvaBharati — stop acting like a spoilt kid & remove marble plaque immediately! It insults Tagore’s legacy! VC’s trying to please Modi to get an extension — & divert issue to WB Govt & dragging Amartya Sen!,” read a post from Jawhar Sircar, TMC MP, on his X timeline.

Interestingly, Chakraborty concluded his letter seeking an audience with Banerjee “to enable us to acquaint you with the reality to defend our claim that you are being deliberately misled by those with partisan motives”. “A face-to-face dialogue with us give you (sic) an opportunity to see the other side of the narrative. And if you give us directions (sic) how to shape our future, we will be extremely happy…”.

That seeming extension of olive branch to Banerjee looked to be in sharp contrast to the Visva-Bharati’s press statement on February 1 which similarly lashed out at Banerjee and had stated: “We are a central university and would be better off without your blessings since we are habituated in walking the path shown by the Prime Minister.”