Veteran Indian actress Anjana Bhowmick has passed away on Saturday morning after battling a prolonged illness. The esteemed thespian was 79 years old at the time of her passing. The actress was admitted to a hospital in south Kolkata on Friday night due to respiratory problems
Several academics, students and public figures came together in the city on Sunday to protest an alleged attempt by Visva-Bharati authorities to defame economist Amartya Sen by engineering a land controversy.
Many felt that the real motive was to silence Sen because of his arguments against certain policies the Narendra Modi government. Some saw in the controversy an attempt at cultural hegemony over Bengal.
“How can I, being a Bengali, tolerate the insult to Amartya Sen? I have taken a stand on my own. The actions of the university have hurt my sentiments,” said Rimona Das, a third-year student of the Sarojini Naidu College for Women in Dum Dum.
“The objective of the attack (on Sen) the Visva-Bharati authorities have launched at the behest of the Centre is to attack the very essence of The Argumentative Indian. The BJP will not brook any voice of dissent. They will not tolerate any criticism,” said actor-director-playwright and state minister Bratya Basu.
“The sole crime that Amartya Sen might have committed is that he dared to speak against the BJP.”
The Argumentative Indian is a collection of essays that discuss India’s history and identity, focusing on the traditions of public debate and intellectual pluralism.
Sen had last week said in response to a question from The Telegraph: “Having been born and brought up in Santiniketan, I could comment on the big gap between Santiniketan culture and that of the VC, empowered as he is by the central government in Delhi, with its growing control over Bengal.”