Visva-Bharati defends action against seven students, professor

KOLKATA: Visva-Bharati University on Wednesday defended its disciplinary action against seven students and a professor, a day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee deplored attempts to “bulldoze democratic protests” in the institution. Banerjee, during her visit to Birbhum district on Tuesday, said disciplinary action taken against the students and the professor was “undemocratic and uncalled for”.

Responding to the remark, Visva-Bharati spokesperson Mahua Banerjee, in a statement, said, "The chief minister came to the conclusion that a teacher has been suspended which is false as the said teacher has moved the court after the university recommended punishment against him and the matter is sub-judice. She has not bothered to check that the court has asked two suspended students to offer an apology and they refused and hence were not allowed to sit for a test.

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"Another student has offered an apology and all action against him has been waived. Five students are yet to offer an apology while the PhD female researcher has been researching for six long years without any definite result. The CM describing them all as victimised has not done justice to the cause of Visva Bharati or the real situation," the statement said.

The CM had said that students were not getting a chance to study for not toeing the university’s line. She said that she met seven suspended students and felt they were victimised, and that a professor was terminated from service while a research scholar was not allowed to complete the PhD. She said that “atrocities were taking place in different forms in the esteemed institution” and called upon everyone to sink in their differences and come together to “save” the university founded by Rabindranath Tagore.

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Responding to the university’s statement, state Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya told PTI the CM rightly stood by the students and the faculty member who bore the brunt of “vendetta politics” of Vice Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty.