Mamata Banerjee squarely denied being invited by Visva-Bharati to Thursday’s event where Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the chancellor made a virtual address to mark the varsity’s centenary celebrations.
The chief minister attributed it to the BJP’s “hatred” for her to counter the saffron ecosystem’s claim that she insulted Rabindranath Tagore by giving the event a miss.
In a news meet on Thursday, Mamata was asked if she was invited and yet she chose not to attend it, which the BJP accused her of.
“When did they call? Whatever the BJP says, I have to pay heed to? I have an office. I do not know anything. Yesterday (Wednesday), he (vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty) sent an intimation, that when I go for a couple of days to Bolpur-Santiniketan next week, if I give him some time to meet. To that, I apologised and said I am unable to give him time...because there are many programmes lined up already,” she said. “This programme today (Thursday), they never invited me. No invite, no phone, none,” she added, hours after the BJP and its various affiliates circulated a purported letter of invite by Chakrabarty to her dated December 4.
“They don’t like me. Instead, they hate me,” she said.
The Trinamul chief has been at loggerheads with the current dispensation at the central varsity since Chakrabarty — allegedly with pro-saffron leanings — took charge.
“When they need my presence, they invite me. Like when Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikha Hasina Madam came, they invited me. This time, it was only the BJP’s event...it was a political event, clearly,” she said.
Mamata asserted that she tweeted her statement to mark the occasion in the morning.
She wrote: “Visva-Bharati University turns 100. This temple of learning was Rabindranath Tagore’s greatest experiment on creating the ideal human being...”
She said her congratulations were for those who “actually contributed” to the varsity and Tagore’s vision. “Today, one or two have suddenly come, brimming with religious fundamentalism. They cannot ruin Visva-Bharati in a day. Those who contributed over a century, them we respect…. Those here now, they are temporary. Their days are numbered,” she said.
She flayed the BJP over its alleged attempts to undermine Bengal and its icons. “The semi-human language they use…. They think they got hold of a Mamata Banerjee… a simple, straightforward, girl next door. She is abused everyday. She doesn’t protest...But from attacking me they have started attacking Bengal’s icons. Vidyasagar, Tagore… what do they want, to make people forget history, geography of Bengal?” she asked. “Without Bengal, the world cannot run.”
