Visva Bharati University says student protests against VC ‘brazen display of thuggery’

KOLKATA: Amid continuing protests by a section of students against Vice Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty, Visva-Bharati university on Friday asserted that the movement was nothing but a “brazen display of thuggery” which will be dealt with sternly.

In a statement, the central university said the gheraos, rallies and sit-ins by the students since the last week of November cannot be described as a "peaceful and democratic form of protest". “Violence has, tragically, become part of the culture of student agitation here,” the statement said.

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Demonstrations against the university authorities, particularly against the VC, are continuing on the campus by a section of students allegedly for denying them accommodation in hostels, suspension of six of them and dismissing a senior professor from service. The authorities were forced to call off the convocation and annual Poush Mela (a fair held in the Bengali month of Poush) because of the unrest.

The statement listed a series of alleged activities of the students such as vandalism of the vice-chancellor’s chamber and ante-chamber, ransacking of CCTV monitors, physical assault on the VC, and attack on the registrar’s private residence and the VC’s official home. "... the so-called student movement has been nothing but a brazen display of thuggery. The might is right attitude that has characterised this self-styled democratic movement is unacceptable and shall be dealt with sternly,” the university statement read.

Naming three other universities of West Bengal, it claimed those institutes were also not “spared from this torture”. About the suspended six students, Visva-Bharati said the university will give them an opportunity to resume their studies, provided they tender an unconditional apology for the “violence and disrespect for the university" that they have shown since November 23, 2022.

Chakraborty was gheraoed at his office on November 23 and escorted several hours later by security guards to his official residence a few hundred metres away. He was then confined in his home for 20 days till December 13 when he faced resistance while going to the university office building. "The university will leave no stone unturned in restoring peace and normalcy in campus using legally endorsed means, including rustication and dismissal from jobs," it said alluding to the sacking of Professor Sudipta Bhattacharya and suspension of six protesting students.

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Spokesperson of the agitating students, Somnath Sow said, "Prof Bhattacharya was a popular teacher. He was undemocratically sacked by the VC for daring to protest against his vindictiveness towards those who raised their voice against his misdeeds.” Bhattacharya, who is an office-bearer of the Visva Bharati University Faculty Association, claimed that the charges are false.

The Visva-Bharati spokesperson alleged that Bhattacharya has been instigating the protests against the VC which also hampered academic functioning in the university. Poet Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-European Nobel Laureate, founded Visva-Bharati in 1921. It was declared to be a central university and an institution of national importance by an Act of Parliament in 1951.