Education minister Partha Chatterjee on Tuesday played down Visva-Bharati’s demand that the state government take “full responsibility of administratively managing” Basanta Utsav on its campus if the festival was brought forward to coincide with Holi.

“Firstly, where is the issue of security arising from? The state government will provide the same kind of support to Basanta Utsav as it has done every year,” he said, when asked for a response to the January 22 letter that the varsity authorities had sent to him.

Moving away from the tradition, the university had decided to hold this year’s Basanta Utsav on a day other than Holi. The move had evoked sharp reactions from various quarters with Chatterjee calling up vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty and requesting him to hold it on Holi.

Responding to Chatterjee’s appeal, the acting registrar of the university wrote to the state government on January 22 that they could hold Basanta Utsav on Holi provided the state government took all responsibility for managing the “gigantic show”.

The varsity in its letter had cited widely reported incidents of vandalism and “widespread chaos” during the festival last year to justify its move for not holding Basanta Utsav — a Santiniketan calendar event on par with the winter Pous Mela — on Holi.

Varsity sources said as they had not received any official response to their letter sent to Chatterjee, the authorities had sought a formal meeting with Birbhum district officials on February 11 to discuss the issue of managing this year’s Basanta Utsav.

Chatterjee appeared to be displeased at varsity authorities’ attempt to pre-emptively pin the blame for any unsavoury incidents at Basanta Utsav this year on the state government.

“Asking for help through veiled threats is inappropriate,” he said, before stating clearly that the event was wholly under the varsity’s jurisdiction and management.

“State government personnel will be present on the ground as they have been every year,” he said.

Contacted on Tuesday evening, varsity PRO Anirban Sircar said: “We stand by our initial claim that the varsity does not have adequate infrastructure to hold Basanta Utsav on Holi. We will decide the final date during our February 11 meeting.”

Asked about minister Chatterjee’s comments earlier in the day, Sircar refused to comment.