Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be giving away the highest awards conferred by Visva-Bharati University, set up by Rabindranath Tagore.
An academician, who is also a member of the executive council of Visva-Bharati University, told THE WEEK, “PMO has written to us that the prime minister would not be able to give the awards because of lack of time. He (PM Modi) has other administration works.”
So will Desikottam, the highest award conferred by the central university, not be given? Said he, “Yes, on a later date.”
PM will be sharing the stage with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who will inaugurate a Bangladesh bhavan in Santiniketan on May 25. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will also grace the occasion.
This year, the awardees are actor Amitabh Bachchan, writer Amitav Ghosh, lyricist Gulzar, writer Suniti Kumar Pathak, Bengali singer Dwijen Mukhopadhyay and painter Jogen Chowdhury. Except Bachchan and Pathak, all the are known to be strong Modi critics.
Vice chancellor Sabuj Kali Sen, who had declared the names of the awardees last month, said the university had sent the names to the Prime Minister’s Office for ratification. “It was accepted”he added.
However, she refused to talk about the PM not attending the event.
Last month, the executive council took the decision of conferring highest awards of the Tagore’s university and send the names to PMO and former HRD minister Smriti Irani. Neither HRD ministry, nor PMO objected to the choice of the executive council of the central university. The prime minister is the chancellor of Visva-Bharati.
Though a central university, the executive council of the Visva-Bharati enjoys autonomy and would not have to consult the Centre about holding convocations. Writer Ghosh has been a strong critic of Modi in the past along with Gulzar. Other awardees are also known Modi critics. While Dwijen Mukhopadhyay is very much close to Mamata Banerjee, and had come out on the street in support of Mamata during her movement in Singur and Nandigram, Jogen Chowdhury is a Rajya Sabha MP of Trinamool Congress. Chowdhury is also an emeritus professor of Visva-Bharati and has a house in Santiniketan, where the varsity is located.
The council chose Pathak for his relentless work and writing on Buddhism and oriental studies, which is part of Visva-Bharati curricula.