Calcutta:
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen wrote today to Bengal’s Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, thanking her for her support in the controversy over his ancestral property in Santiniketan. Visva Bharati University reportedly wrote to the Ministry of Education, listing the invaders on the campus grounds and Professor Sen’s name was on it. The 87-year-old laureate has completely dismissed the reports, saying he had read about the controversy in the media and no one from the University had contacted him.
Professor Sen has a family home in Santiniketan, “Pratichi”, which was built by his maternal grandfather Kshitimohan Sen, an academic and associate of Rabindranath Tagore, who established the university a hundred years ago.
“I am not only very moved, but also very reassured that despite the busy life you have to lead, you can find time to reassure people who are under attack. Your strong voice, along with your full understanding of what it is happening, it is for me a tremendous source of strength, “Professor Sen wrote to Ms Banerjee today.
On Friday, the Chief Minister wrote to Amartya Sen, expressing his support. Expressing “surprise and anguish”, he spoke of his deep ties to Santiniketan and the “nouveau invaders” raising unfounded accusations.
“Some nouveau invaders in Visva Bharati have begun to make surprising and unsubstantiated allegations about their family properties … This hurts me, and I want to express my solidarity with you in your battles against the intolerance of the majority in this country, the battles that have made you an enemy of these forces of falsehood, “he wrote.
.
