Prime Minister and Chancellor of Visva-Bharati Narendra Modi made a virtual address to mark the start of the varsity’s centenary celebrations on Thursday where he lauded Rabindranath Tagore’s “inclusiveness” and “self-reliance”.

“Gurudev was carrying on the ideology of inclusiveness, omniscient co-existence and cooperation for the betterment of human beings. This vision of Gurudev for Visva-Bharati is also the essence of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India),” Modi said from Delhi via videoconference to address a gathering of university officials, teachers and alumni.

Tagore officially founded Visva-Bharati in December 1921.

Apart from praising Tagore’s ideology, Modi did not forget to share links of Tagore and his elder brother Satyendranath with Gujarat.

However, Modi’s mention of self-reliance has given rise to questions on the lack of central help by way of grants for the varsity during his tenure. Old-timers, especially, pointedly asked whether the advice to be self-reliance was to justify the Centre’s “neglect” by way of slashing grants.

In contrast, senior varsity professors recalled how the varsity used to get financial support during the time of earlier prime ministers such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and others. These prime ministers used to visit the campus regularly and helped the institute with special grants during their visits, recalled old-timers.

“In 1996, during the varsity’s 75th year, the then Prime Minister’s office donated a package of Rs 100 crore. In recent memory, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced a special grant of Rs 95 crore from the dais of convocation in 2008. It is interesting that we did not hear any such announcement (of a grant) from our present Chancellor today apart from the advice to being self-reliant,” said a varsity professor.

As Chancellor, Modi has attended the varsity’s convocation once since he came to power 2014. Modi came to the varsity town in May 2018 to inaugurate the Bangladesh Bhavana along with his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina.

Apart from the construction of the building, the Bangladesh government had provided Rs 10 crore as a corpus fund to run the institution. Varsity officials said they had requested Centre for a corpus fund but it is yet to come.

Several varsity officials said allotment for Visva-Bharati had been unprecedentedly slashed during Modi’s tenure.

Varsity officials said the Centre had asked the institute to be “self-dependent” and the fund crunch was such that authorities had requested employees to contribute for repairing the Upasana Griha (prayer hall), which was set up by Tagore’s father Debendranath in 1890.

The varsity had to issue a notice alerting employees for a probable delay in payment of salary due to “paucity of funds” in February. However, laer the Centre allotted a special grant of Rs 20 crore to release employees’ salaries on time.

On Thursday, a new market Bharat-Tirtha was inaugurated at Ratan Pally for small traders.

To raise funds, the varsity has decided to raise monthly rent from the hawkers in lieu of allowing them to set up stalls. Officials said the varsity intends to earn around Rs 3.5 lakh annually from renting the stalls.

Even the VC also admitted in writing that the fund from the Centre was being slashed regularly and asked the employees to donate their salaries in one of his missives issued in June this year.

“All this has ensured that the university is left with a single source of income: the MHRD. It is a known fact that the government support is routinely slashed and so the university is increasingly burdened with the responsibility of raising funds for its own upkeep,” the missive by the VC had stated. In February, too, the VC claimed the university was in an acute financial crisis and running on ‘life-support’.

Modi went on to highlight Tagore’s Gujarat connect.

“Tagore’s elder brother Satyendranath Tagore was posted as an ICS officer in Ahmedabad and Rabindranath Tagore used to visit Gujarat frequently and spent a long time there. While residing in Ahmedabad he wrote two poems and a part of the famous Kshudito Pashan,” Modi said.