Education minister Bratya Basu on Friday questioned Calcutta University’s decision to rename its Human Resource Development Centre as Malaviya Mission Teacher Training Centre, after Madan Mohan Malaviya.
On his X handle, the minister wondered why the centre could not be renamed after a scholar from Bengal.
Calcutta University wrote on its website: “This changing of name follows the acceptance of the letter issued by the UGC….”
The minister wrote in Bengali on his X handle: “I don’t have anything to say on the erudition of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya. It is also true that he graduated from Calcutta University. But did the university not get the name of a scholar from Bengal to name the Human Resource Development Centre?
“Do we have to name everything in the country after a handful of great men? I am demanding this centre be immediately named after Acharya Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay or Professor Sukumar Sen.”
Historians this newspaper spoke to said Malaviya, a gifted orator and scholar, helped establish the Hindu Mahasabha in 1906, which later brought diverse local Hindu nationalist movements together. “He shuttled between the Congress and the Hindu Mahasabha. Such tendencies existed in before Independence,” said one historian.
When Metro contacted the minister, he said: “I don’t want to say anything beyond what I have written on my X handle.”
Suniti Kumar Chatterji was a legendary linguist and litterateur. He is said to have known 36 languages, ancient and modern, and wrote foundational texts. Sukumar Sen, too, was a linguist of eminence.
CU's officiating vice-chancellor, Santa Datta, said that as the UGC funded the centre, the university had to abide by whatever the regulating body decided.
“This facility was earlier named the Academic Staff Training College by the UGC. Then the UGC renamed it the Human Resource Development Centre. Recently, it has again renamed it after Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya. I know what the minister has posted.... But what choice do we have?” she said.
The centre holds refresher courses for college and university teachers.
Datta had been handpicked by the Bengal governor, the ex-officio chancellor of state-aided universities, as officiating VC in June last year, allegedly without consulting the government.
The minister has since refused to accept the legitimacy of the VC.