Santiniketan’s UNESCO tag plaques to be replaced: Visva Bharati spokesperson

Kolkata: The newly installed plaques at Visva Bharati university in West Bengal, which triggered a row for omitting the name of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, will soon be replaced with new ones, a university spokesperson said.

Santiniketan town in Birbhum district, where Tagore built Visva-Bharati over a century ago, was included in UNESCO’s world heritage list in September.

Visva-Bharati – the only central university in the state - installed three plaques featuring the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who happens to be the chancellor of the university and the vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty, but omitting he name of Tagore.

“The plaques are temporary in nature. They were just installed to earmark the heritage site. They will be replaced by new ones having inscriptions which would be provided by the Archaeological Survey of India and the UNESCO,” said Mahua Banerjee, spokesperson of the university.

HT reported that the current plaques, which were installed late last week, triggered a row as the name of Tagore was omitted even as they carried the names of Modi and Chakrabarty.

“UNESCO specifically said they are honouring Rabindranath Tagore and his unique legacy by declaring Santiniketan as a World Heritage Site. A megalomaniac VC and his boss seem to think UNESCO is honouring them!!” Jawhar Sircar, Rajya Sabha MP of Trinamool Congress and a former bureaucrat, posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Tagore’s great grand nephew Supriyo Thakur also expressed his displeasure over the issue. “I am not in Santiniketan at the moment but I have heard the news. The present authorities are trying to wipe out the name of Tagore from Visva-Bharati,” Thakur said over phone. “There should be some protest. Those who have done it should be taught a lesson.”

University officials said that they have already got in touch with the Archaeological Survey of India and the latter is likely to send the text for the inscription on the new plaques by the end of October.

“ASI is likely to send the text for the inscription by October-end. This would include a proper historical background of the heritage site. UNESCO is also likely to send their text for inscription but that will take some time,” said Banerjee.

India was sought a UNESCO tag for this cultural site in Birbhum district for years. The decision to include Santiniketan in the list was taken at the 45th session of the world heritage committee held in Saudi Arabia in September.