Visva-Bharati students shift site of protest on HC order

With the Calcutta High Court on Friday banning demonstrations anywhere within 50 metres of the Visva-Bharati campus at Santiniketan, which also houses official quarters, students, who had been staging a sit-in near the vice-chancellors residence over expulsion of three peers, moved their site of agitation outside the prohibited area.One of the three expelled students, Somnath Sow, told PTI that the sit-in dais near the entrance of Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakrabortys residence has been dismantled and all posters and festoons removed.

With the Calcutta High Court on Friday banning demonstrations anywhere within 50 metres of the Visva-Bharati campus at Santiniketan, which also houses official quarters, students, who had been staging a sit-in near the vice-chancellor’s residence over expulsion of three peers, moved their site of agitation outside the prohibited area.

One of the three expelled students, Somnath Sow, told PTI that the sit-in dais near the entrance of Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty’s residence has been dismantled and all posters and festoons removed. ''We are erecting another platform 50 metres away from the Visva-Bharati territory. We will holding protests from there henceforth... The students will keep tab on Chakraborty’s movements but not get into any confrontation with the police,'' Sow said.

Meanwhile, a Visva-Bharati official said that Bolpur sub-divisional police officer Abhisek Roy visited the site of the protest around 4 pm and posted three constables there for VC's security after breaking open the locks of the main gate of his residence, in accordance with the high court order. The students denied having locked the gate from outside.

An officer-bearer of Visva-Bharati University Faculty Association said its members support the ''democratic protest'' and will continue to stand by the students.

The Calcutta High Court, in an interim order, directed that normal functioning be restored at the central university with no demonstration anywhere within 50 metres of the institution, as protest near the VC's residence entered the seventh day.

''No demonstration shall be conducted by any student or any person within a distance of 50 metres of any portion or part of the university, particularly the schools, classrooms, the residence of vice chancellor, teachers, professors, officials, staff library, the administrative buildings, laboratories, etc,'' the court directed.

The central university and its VC Bidyut Chakrabarty had on Wednesday moved the high court seeking orders for the West Bengal police to lift the gherao.

Chakraborty has not stepped out of home over the past one week in the wake of the agitation being carried out by the students and some teachers.

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.

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