The Congress held a demonstration here on Sunday to demand an “unconditional apology” from Visva-Bharati vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty for his remark that “the biggest thieves of the country” entered Rajghat on October 2 “wearing caps”.

Around 50 Congress leaders and workers protested for around half-an-hour at Chou-Rasta, a busy place in Bolpur town, with placards and flexes. The protesters demanded that the VC produce proofs that thieves entered Rajghat on Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary.

“Does he have any confidential police report on the thieves who enter Rajghat? His words hurt people like us who believe in Gandhi’s ideology. He should not forget that people beyond political identities visit Rajghat on the birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation,” said Debkumar Dutta, a Congress leader and advocate who is the president of Bolpur Bar Association.

The Congress has demanded unconditional apology from the VC for his speech.

“We demand unconditional apology from the VC as he has hurt Gandhians across the country. We plan to launch a larger movement against the VC for his insensitive comments after board exams,” Birbum Congress president Sanjay Adhikary said.

During an event to commemorate the International Mother Language Day on Friday, VC Bidyut Chakraborty had said: “It is difficult to enter Rajghat on October 2, Gandhiji’s birth anniversary. The biggest thieves of the country enter the place wearing caps. Through the year they do things that Gandhiji had objected to.”

The Congress said Chakrabarty’s speech not only maligned thousands of people who visited Rajghat to pay their respects to the Father of the Nation but also tarnished the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi.

“It is sad that the head of the institution for which Gandhiji had a special place made a comment like this. Gandhiji had visited Santiniketan several times and had a special bonding with Rabindranath Tagore,” Birbhum Congress general secretary Tapan Saha said.

Mahatma Gandhi had visited Santiniketan for the first time in 1915 and last in 1945, after the demise of Tagore.