Med team fails to check on Vishwa-Bharati VC amid stir; faculty body seeks PM's help to end logjam

A medical team that wanted to check on Viswa-Bharati Vice Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty was apparently turned away by students agitating outside his residence as their proposal that two of them would accompany the doctors during the health examination was rejected by the academic.

Chakraborty has not stepped out of home over the past six days in the wake of the agitation being carried out by the students and some teachers over the expulsion of three of their peers.

A faculty association has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who happens to be the chancellor of the central university, urging him to save this august institution ''from further degeneration''.

One of the doctors, who was a part of the team, told reporters that he and other colleagues were asked to examine the VC's health by the Visva-Bharati administration after Chakraborty complained of uneasiness.

The demonstrators, however, stopped the team from visiting him, the doctor said.

A protester, however, claimed that he and other students are ''worried about the VC's health condition'' and wanted to find out how he had been doing.

''We just proposed that two students be allowed to accompany the health team. Since the VC did not allow us to enter his home, we had to turn away the team,'' he stated.

The agitator further said that he wished Chakraborty well, but ''the possibility that he would leave home along with the doctors could not be ruled out''.

Supporting the protesters, Visva-Bharati University Faculty Association (VBUFA) office-bearer Sudipto Bhattacharya sought to know ''what harm would have happened if two young students went there?'' ''If the VC is actually sick, we will do everything necessary for his treatment. But if the VC only communicates with a chosen few and tries to keep the students out of the process, then the suspicion that he may want to escape will definitely arise,'' he added.

In its letter to Modi, the VBUFA said that ''three students have been rusticated, and a large number of faculty members and employees suspended or issued show-cause notices'' in matters which could have been solved through dialogue and discussions.

The association also said that the events that had been unfolding of late, triggered by the decisions taken by the VC over the past two years, might lead to the ''closure'' of the institution. ''While the honourable chancellor interacts with students of this vast country on a regular basis, professor Chakraborty failed to talk to the students who are like our sons and daughters. Driven by confrontational attitude and lack of vision, professor Chakraborty is leading Visva-Bharati to an existential crisis,'' the VBUFA alleged in its letter to the PM.

The faculty body, representing a section of the teachers, said that most members of the university's statutory bodies, including the executive council, are acting in a partisan manner ''and at the behest of the VC''.

It demanded that an investigation be carried out into the complaints against Chakraborty by an independent committee, headed by a serving or retired judge of a high-court.

The three students -- two of them pursuing economics and one a student of the music department -- were expelled by the central university for alleged disorderly conduct.

They were first put under suspension in January 2021 for alleged disorderly conduct and use of abusive words against Chakraborty during a protest at Chhatimtala on the university campus.

A Visva Bharati official said the students were given chance to defend their case before the enquiry commissioner appointed by the university, but they were ''adamant and unapologetic''.

The official also said that the charges levelled against the VC were ''untrue'' and the university authorities only seek to work in unison with all stakeholders to ''improve the multidisciplinary academic standard of the institution'' founded by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

The agitators, seeking immediate revocation of the expulsion order, have been staging a sit-on outside the VC's residence over the past few days.

Admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate courses have been put on hold in the wake of the protest, with the varsity issuing a notice to say that Chakraborty had been unable to look after the institute's affairs.

Amid complaints by the VC that he was finding it difficult to get food from outside due to the demonstration near his residence, the agitators, meanwhile, made arrangements to send him all three meals in a day.

Somnath Sow, one of the expelled students, said that the food items were being handed over to the guards manning the VC's residence.