West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday criticized authorities for not inscribing the names of Rabindranath Tagore on the plaques at the Visva Bharati University in Santiniketan, a UNESCO ‘World Heritage Site’, and warned of mass protests there if they were not replaced by Friday morning.
“It is only for Tagore that Santiniketan got the UNESCO tag and you removed his name from the plaque. We were silent because of the Durga Puja celebrations. If you don’t remove the plaques and put up new ones with the Nobel laureate’s name. Tomorrow at 10 am, our people will put Kabiguru’s name on their chests. will start a protest by holding the picture,” Ms Banerjee told reporters at a press conference in Kolkata.
A huge controversy arose after the university authorities installed a marble plaque bearing the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the university’s chancellor and vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty, but no mention of Tagore. Santiniketan was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List on 17 September.
