Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday launched an unprecedented attack on Visva-Bharati vice chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty and his administration for allegedly allowing the BJP to use the varsity to peddle “hate politics” and insult Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen who is known for his reservations about the saffron regime.

“I don’t feel good when I see Visva-Bharati is used to peddle hate politics... Don’t forget that dirty politics has been imported to the campus and the entire Bengal,” said Mamata while addressing a gathering at Jambuni Battala crossing in Bolpur town at the end of her road show.

“Tagore had set up Visva-Bharati with the theme of promoting education in nature... You have turned Visva-Bharati into a place of riots. It hurts my heart and I feel sorry,” she said after garlanding Tagore's statue at the end of the mega road show.

It was clear that Chakrabarty — blamed by the many in the varsity community for promoting the saffron agenda on campus — was the target of her blistering attack.

Mamata Banerjee pays tribute to Tagore at the end of her road show in Bolpur. (Amarnath Dutta)

Mamata added that she was observing with dismay that several old-timers, including Sen, were attacked in filthy language by some in Visva-Bharati.

“These attacks are launched on ashramik brothers and sisters from Visva-Bharati. They did not even spare Amartya Sen. I came here in Bolpur to raise a voice of protest against this,” said Mamata.

Recently, Sen’s name featured on a list drawn up the estate department of the varsity of illegal occupants on the campus.

The allegation came close on the heels of the vice-chancellor saying that he received a phone call from Sen, during which the latter introduced himself as “Bharat Ratna”, and asked him not to evict hawkers from near his house because his daughter buys vegetables from them, a claim the economist has since described a “completely imagined conversation”.

“Having been born and brought up in Santiniketan, I could comment on the big gap between Santiniketan culture and that of the VC, empowered as he is by the central government in Delhi...,” said Sen after the controversy over land encroachment to The Telegraph.

Mamata on Tuesday also attacked Chakrabarty for his alleged direct connection with the BJP.

“I don't have any individual grudge or grievances against the VC. Didn’t they find anyone else for the post of the VC? They had to get someone who has a stamp of BJP. What do BJP leaders do inside the chamber of the VC every day? What do they do inside Visva-Bharati?” she asked.

Mamata takes up a stringed instrument. (Amarnath Dutta)

Varsity insiders said that in the last two years of Chakrabarty’s appointment, Visva-Bharati had become a free space for people associated with the BJP or the Rightwing ideology.

Allegations of saffronisation emerged strongly when ABVP national secretary Sunil Ambekar was invited for the Halakarshana (traditional ploughing ceremony) in 2019. Both Briksharopan (tree plantation) and Halakarshana were started by Rabindranath Tagore to promote a healthy respect for ecology and cultivation.

A lecture supporting the Citizenship Amendment Act by Rajya Sabha member Swapan Dasgupta was organised by the VC on January 8 which prompted students to protest.

Chakrabarty told ABP Ananda in the evening: “If anyone can produce proof that the university has turned into a party office, I can clarify.” To him, the BJP, Congress, CPM and TMC “are all immaterial”, he claimed. “My aim is to do whatever possible for the development of Visva-Bharati, even at the cost of my life.”

Mamata helps a child tie a handkerchief as a mask. (Amarnath Dutta)