Days after the shocking theft of Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel Prize medallion from the Rabindra Bhavana museum in 2004, the then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee visited Santiniketan.
After visiting the museum, he went to meet the then vice-chancellor, Sujit Basu, in his office. Basu was not only the head of the central university but also a batchmate of Bhattacharjee at what was Presidency College at the time.
While the two friends were discussing ways to mitigate the crisis, Bhattacharjee heard some sloganeering outside. Protesters were demanding the resignation of Basu because of the high-profile heist on campus, on his watch.
“Let me handle this first,” he had said, before going out to face the protesters. He spoke to them at length, and returned only after they were convinced,” recalled Basu, reminiscing about his days with his friend.
“He assured me that the state government would extend all kinds of help to Visva-Bharati.”
Basu, who studied statistics while Bhattacharjee studied Bengali in Presidency, said: “I am in Calcutta but could not meet Meera (Bhattacharjee’s wife) today.”
“I will meet her soon. I have been in mourning from the moment I received the news of my friend’s death,” he added.
Although Basu did not know exactly how Bhattacharjee convinced the protesters to withdraw their demand for his resignation, those among the protesters still recall how the stereotypical bhadralok chief minister had handled the situation.
“He came to us and asked very decently why we were protesting. When we explained the reason, he assured us that he had already involved the CID to investigate the matter, along with central agencies. He also said that, as a Tagore lover, he was personally in profound pain over the loss,” said Kishore Bhattacharya, a retired teacher and former chief of Adhyapak Sabha, the varsity’s teachers’ body.
“He was so decent that we had no choice but to end our agitation. Buddhababu was a true Tagore lover and never allowed his party to interfere in the affairs of Visva-Bharati,” he added.
Several Alimuddin Street old-timers recalled how Bhattacharjee was a true Tagore lover, who could effortlessly recite over 1,500 of the Nobel laureate polymath’s songs and poems and was immensely proud of the bard’s legacy.
“Wherever he stayed, a portrait of Rabindranath Tagore was always on the wall. A portrait of Tagore hung on the wall of his 59A Palm Avenue home as well,” said a CPM state committee member.