Intellectuals stage sit-in against Visva-Bharati’s eviction order to Amartya Sen
On April 19, Visva-Bharati authorities passed an eviction order against Sen, stating that on May 6, it will take possession of 0.13 acres (5,500 sq ft) of the total 1.38 acres of leased land covered by Sen’s ancestral property on the campus at Santiniketan
Prominent academics and intellectuals on Saturday held a sit-in protest at Santiniketan in West Bengal’s Birbhum district against the eviction order by Visva-Bharati, West Bengal’s only central university, for Nobel laureate Amartya Sen to vacate the land on the campus he has been allegedly occupying in an unauthorised manner.
On April 19, Visva-Bharati authorities passed an eviction order against Sen, stating that on May 6, it will take possession of 0.13 acres (5,500 sq ft) of the total 1.38 acres of leased land covered by Sen’s ancestral property on the campus at Santiniketan.
Also Read: Row over Sen’s home keeps sleepy Bengal varsity town on edge
Among the intellectuals who took part in the protest, held for the second consecutive day, were filmmaker Goutam Ghosh, and artists Suvaprasanna and Jogen Chowdhury.
“Amartya Sen believes in the ideology of Rabindranath Tagore. The present government at the centre doesn’t believe in that ideology and that’s why they want to malign Sen and Visva-Bharati,” Chowdhury, veteran artist and a former Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha MP, told media persons.
“The way an eminent person like Amartya Sen was harassed and ill-treated, one can’t even imagine. This could have been solved. But it was blown out of proportion,” Ghosh told reporters at Santiniketan.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had also threatened a demonstration if the Visva-Bharati authorities bring in bulldozers and try to take possession of the 0.13-acre land at Pratichi– Sen’s house on the campus.
She had even asked her cabinet colleagues and intellectuals to create a blockade in a bid to thwart any eviction attempt.
Also Read: If Visva Bharati tries to bulldoze Amartya Sen’s house, I’ll sit there: Mamata
Sen’s house ‘Pratichi’ stands on the sprawling campus at Bolpur in the state’s Birbhum district. The varsity on April 19 ordered Sen to vacate the concerned area by May 6.
The 89-year-old economist had moved the Birbhum district court at Siuri town on April 27 and the matter was listed for hearing on May 15, prompting him to move the high court for a stay on the eviction order.
On Thursday, the Calcutta high court put an interim stay on the April 19 eviction order.
“Having heard the learned advocates, the learned district judge, Birbhum is requested to hear the stay application on 10th May 2023 at 2 P.M and till then, the order of a joint registrar, Visva Bharati and estate officer should not be enforced or till the date of disposal of the stay application, whichever is later,” the high court order, seen by HT, said.
Sen is in the USA, where he spends most of his time. Birbhum-based lawyer Gorachand Chakraborty, who is representing Sen, filed a petition against the eviction order before the Siuri court on April 27.
In 2022, Visva-Bharati vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty claimed that the economist’s father, Ashutosh Sen, who was a development commissioner in Delhi and who also served as chairman of the West Bengal Public Service Commission, rented only 1.25 acres on a 99-year lease in 1943.
On January 30, CM Banerjee met Amartya Sen during his visit to Santiniketan and handed over a state land and revenue department record showing that all 1.38 acres covered by the property belong to him through a mutation executed in 2006.
Set up by Rabindranath Tagore in 1921, Visva-Bharati is the only central university in West Bengal. The Prime Minister is its chancellor.
