SFI and DYFI workers on Sunday morning unveiled a symbolic plaque with the name of Rabindranath Tagore in Santiniketan to protest against Visva-Bharati’s existing plaques to commemorate the Unesco’s heritage tag on the place without the name of its founder.

The central varsity’s marble plaques — at least two have been installed — only bear the names of its chancellor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty.

The symbolic plaque, written on a piece of cloth installed on a makeshift wooden structure was placed at Club More of Santiniketan, barely 50 metres from Upasana Griha, where one of the controversial plaques has been installed by the varsity.

“We inaugurated the symbolic plaque to show the authorities what the actual plaque should look like. It was a mode of our protest at a time Visva-Bharati has humiliated Rabindranath Tagore, the founder of Santiniketan and the varsity, by omitting his name from the plaque,” said Sagnik Lala, secretary of SFI’s Bolpur local committee.

The members of CPM’s students and youth wing on Sunday morning put up a demonstration for an hour to condemn the move of Visva-Bharati for its plaques without Tagore’s name before inaugurating the symbolic one.

“Rabindra aitijhyomandito Visva-Bharati saho Santiniketan Unesco dwara ghoshito biswa aitijhyabahi sthan (Visva-Bharati and Santiniketan, which carry the tradition of Rabindranath, were inscribed as Unesco’s World Heritage Site),” the script written on the symbolic plaque reads.

Unesco declared Santiniketan as its cultural heritage site on September 17.

However, the omission of Tagore’s name on the plaques installed caused outrage. Civil society members, the teaching fraternity, students and political parties — Trinamul, the BJP and the Congress — sought their replacement with ones with Tagore’s name.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee instructed Trinamul to demonstrate near the campus till the plaques were replaced with those with Tagore’s name. The protest has been on for 10 days now.

Although Visva-Bharati officially claimed that the marble plaques were set up “temporarily”, no one from the university could confirm when they would replace those plaques.

The SFI and DYFI leaders also claimed that Chakrabarty’s tenure as vice-chancellor should not be extended by the central government as he had “insulted the legacy of Tagore”.

Chakrabarty’s five-year tenure will be over on Wednesday.