The six-member committee that was formed to draft the Bengali version of the English and Hindi texts sent by the Centre for inscription on the plaques to replace the controversial tablets that had omitted Rabindranath Tagore’s name held its first meeting at Visva-Bharati on Friday and decided to finalise the content during a meeting on Saturday.
A source said the members held an emergency meeting following a prod from the Union education ministry, which wants the plaques to be replaced as soon as possible.
“The texts sent by the ministry have been shared with all the six members. They will work on the Bengali draft and suggest if they want any changes in its English and Bengali versions. We have decided to finalise this on Saturday and send our proposal to acting vice-chancellor Sanjoy Kumar Mallik,” said a senior varsity official.
Three of the members participated in the meeting through videoconference and the remaining three were physically present at Rabindra Bhavana.
“We were planning to hold the meeting on November 19 or 20. However, the meeting was convened immediately as the Union education ministry doesn’t want any further delay in the replacement of the controversial plaques,” the official said.
Visva-Bharati on Thursday set up the six-member committee following an instruction from the education ministry that sent detailed texts in English and Hindi on Tuesday with a direction
to inscribe them on the plaques and instal them in place of the plaques that did not mention Tagore’s name.
The controversial plaques had been installed by former Visva-Bharati vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty and named him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, drawing sharp criticism from all quarters.
The six-member committee is headed by acting director of culture Amal Pal, and has four other teachers — acting director of the publishing department Amrit Sen, Hindi teacher Shakuntala Mishra, Bengali teacher Manabendra Mukhopadhyay and history teacher Anil Kumar. The sixth member is Nilanjan Bandyopadhyay, a special officer at Rabindra Bhavana.
“After the six-member committee submits the draft to the acting VC, he may send the matter to the Union ministry of education again for final approval,” a source said.
