Amidst agitation against Bidyut Chakrabarty, Vice-Chancellor of the Visva-Bharati University, around 50-60 students gheraoed him for 12 hours in his office on Thursday, November 24, demanding his resignation. The VC was eventually "rescued" by private security guards to help him leave his office, a teacher of the university informed EdexLive.
"After 10-12 hours, goons or outsiders forcefully broke the college gate and beat up students. Such gherao of the VC is normal in movements across universities. But rescuing the VC and destroying the government property with iron rods, hammers and other weapons is unprecedented," said President of the Visva-Bharati Faculty Association (VBUFA), Prof Sudipta Bhattacharyya. The teachers' organisation strongly condemns this action, he said.
To recall, the university has witnessed several show cause notices and entwined itself in around 100 legal cases ever since Bidyut Chakrabarty took over as the VC of the university in November 2018. The university employees also blame the VC’s “whimsical and anarchic actions” and call it the reason behind the drop in the varsity’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) and National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) rankings. Prof Sudipta informed EdexLive that currently, the movement is still going on in front of the bungalow of the VC.
