Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on Saturday broke his silence on the controversy around Visva-Bharati allegedly putting his name in the list of illegal occupants of its lands.
Professor Sen described the development a political matter, and said if the Vice-Chancellor of Visva Bharati Bidyut Chakraborty feels happy to take part in such political matters, then there was nothing to be done.
“Till now, I have not received a single letter. There are only talks in the media. This is evidence of uncivilised behaviour. I believe there are good reasons to condemn this kind of behaviour. I am delighted that people, including the Chief Minister also, think so. If there was really any complaint, then they should have written to me,” he told a local television news channel from Visva-Bharati.
On Friday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had written to Professor Sen expressing solidarity with him against the “bigotry of the majoritarians in this country”. He said there may be a political reason for the war that was being waged from the office of the Vice-Chancellor. “I have often been the target of criticism for the political party to whom Bidyut Babu (the Vice-Chancellor) is beholden to,” he said.
The Noble laureate said the allegations come after 50 years. “How did you discover that? What is the proof? Do you have the necessary papers? I have certainly talked to my lawyers. I will not do anything now, but I will certainly act on it when they tell me what the issue is,” he said.
According to the letter sent by Ms. Banerjee to Prof. Sen, the Nobel laureate’s family has deep and organic linkages with Santiniketan. She said that Prof. Sen’s father Asutosh Sen, who was a noted educationist, had built the house in Santiniketan several decades ago.
The West Bengal BJP leadership jumped into the controversy and State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said Prof. Sen is a respectable person but he should not appear as a “spokesperson of a party that running a dictatorship in West Bengal”.
“We do not expect anything from him (Mr. Sen). We respect him, but he should not become the spokesperson of any group. The country is proud of him and his words should be of that stature. If he talks on behalf of a party or an ideology, then we will think whether the award was given to the wrong person,” Mr. Ghosh said.
