The dispute surrounding plaques commemorating the Unesco heritage tag at Visva-Bharati has escalated, with both the Santiniketan Trust and the university filing complaints against each other, and the vice chancellor flagging the issue as a “politically engineered” controversy in a letter to the Centre.

The Santiniketan Trust is the custodian of the 15.3-acre campus in Santiniketan.

It filed anFIR at the local police station against VC Bidyut Chakrabarty on Sunday for installing the plaques without seeking the trust’s approval.In response, Visva-Bharati lodged a counter FIR on Monday, accusing the trust’s secretary Anil Konar of defaming the VC Chakrabarty.

Under mounting pressure from various quarters, including Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, governor CV Ananda Bose, and political parties, including BJP, the VC Chakrabarty defended the inscriptions on the plaques in a letter to the education ministry.

VC Chakrabarty identified eight plaques on the university campus, of which only one featured Tagore’s name alongside that of other personalities.

VC Chakrabarty alleged that the controversy was being fuelled by Trinamool Congress workers with support from CM Banerjee to divert attention from scams involving her top cabinet ministers.
He claimed the controversy was a “political design” aimed at defaming the PM, who also serves as the chancellor of the university.

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