The Visva-Bharati authorities are keen to silence dissent and the suspension of economics teacher Sudipta Bhattacharyya bears testimony to that, said a group of teachers who assembled in front of the university’s publishing department office in Calcutta.
The perception on the Santiniketan campus is that Bhattacharyya has been penalised for the role he played in revealing how vice-chancel-lor Bidyut Chakrabarty had insulted Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.
The teachers, from various colleges and universities, alleged that the Visva-Bharati administration was trying to destroy the atmosphere of free thinking on the campus. They assembled under the banner “Right to Save Education Forum”.