Vinay Sahasrabudhe to lecture at VBU: Why teachers and students don't want him there

After the Visva Bharati University (VBU) invited BJP Rajya Sabha MP and President of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) Dr Vinay Sahasrabuddhe for a lecture on January 21, the left-leaning students and teachers of the university have started protesting against the decision. While the Students' Federation of India (SFI) said that the VC has been inviting only BJP members to spread a particular ideology, the teachers' association said that Dr Sahasrabuddhe is also the Chairman of Parliament Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, and the VC has invited him to influence the Action Taken Report (ATR).
 
Dr Sahasrabuddhe will deliver a lecture on “India: A Soft Power” virtually on January 21. SFI said that Dr Bidyut Chakrabarty has been inviting BJP leaders and this will result in propagating a certain ideology on campus. The VBU Faculty Association (VBUFA) has a different issue. "Dr Sahasrabudhe is the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Education and three members of that same committee and other Rajya Sabha MPs — Asit Mal, TN Prathapan and Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya — have already pointed out the irregularities in VBU. Since a number of complaints are pending before the Ministry and the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Dr Chakrabarty should recuse himself from chairing the lecture for the sake of probity and propriety. It would seem that he has brought Dr Sahasrabudhe to influence the perception and show that he is with the VC," said a member of the VBUFA.

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Dr Sahasrabudhe said that he will be delivering the lecture and that he is looking forward to it. "A lot of foreign students who have secured scholarships from ICCR study at VBU. That's one reason why I am looking forward to it. I will be speaking on various dimensions of soft power in India," he said and added that he wouldn't want to comment on the protests. "It's okay. It's their favourite pastime," he added.
 
A Visva-Bharati official said Sahasrabuddhe was an internationally known academician and the university invited him to deliver the speech as part of its lecture series. “We don’t see the ideology of an individual, but whether he fits the parameters to speak on an issue. Dr Sahasrabuddhe has attended programmes in various universities of the world. If anyone tries to indulge in politics on the issue, that is unfortunate,” the official said.

With PTI inputs