VC sacked for misconduct: What's wrong at Tagore's Visva Bharati University?

The Visva-Bharati was founded by Rabindrananth Tagore in 1921. It will complete its centenary in 5 years. But for the first time, the university has had to face the ignominy of its vice-chancellor being dismissed for misconduct.

On Monday, the President of India (who is also the Visitor of Visva Bharati), sacked vice-chancellor, Dr Sushanta Dattagupta on grounds of gross misconduct and dereliction of duty.

This is the first time a head of a central university is being sacked in this manner.

"It's a sad day for Visva-Bharati that its vice-chancellor has been sacked on charges of malpractice,'' laments Prof. Bijoy Mukherjee of the Department of Philosophy & Comparative Religion at Visva Bharati.

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Somendranath Bandopadhyay, a retired professor of Visva-Bharati and noted authority on Tagore literature, observes, ''It was expected, he should have been sacked much earlier. Why did they take so much time to decide on it?''

In 2004, Dr Dilip Sinha, former vice-chancellor of Visva Bharati, was arrested on the charge that he had appointed a lecturer in the mathematics department on the basis of marksheets that were allegedly forged. But his arrest came 2 years after he had finished his term.

Later, the investigations revealed that Sinha allegedly attested the copies of the marksheets and certificates that were purportedly issued by the Calcutta and Jadavpur universities. On the basis of these attested copies of fake certificates and mark sheets, the lecturer was appointed by the university board headed by Sinha himself. After spending 3 months in Bolpur jail, Sinha is out on bail pending the conclusion of the case.

A controversial tenure

Dattagupta's tenure in Visva Bharati was mired with allegations of highhandedness and nepotism. On 22 September, 2015, the HRD Ministry had recommended his removal after a fact-finding committee found him guilty on 4 counts - including making 25 illegal appointments and drawing pension from JNU along with his salary from Visva-Bharati without getting it deducted from his pay.

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But the President's office had informally conveyed its unwillingness to dismiss the vice chancellor in November 2015. Instead, the Rashtrapati Bhavan indicated that the government could explore the option of accepting the vice-chancellor's resignation. Dattagupta tendered his resignation on 30 September 2015. But the HRD ministry stuck to its guns and got its stand vetted by the law ministry. After that the Rashtrapati Bhavan gave its nod to the the vice-chancellor's sacking.

Though Dattagupta has been ousted, he was not alone in the wrongdoings that he allegedly committed.

Most of his controversial actions, including his dual salary and benefits from Visva Bharati and JNU, were duly ratified by the University's executive council.

''The VC's sacking is not only shocking; it also points to the continuous decline the university has undergone for several decades now," said Dr Ashok Sarkar, professor at the School of Development, Azim Premji University in Bengaluru.

"This has happened at a time when there is renewed global interest in Tagore's experiments with school and higher education. They are being seen as a path towards building an alternative human society, in which self reliance, cooperation and creativity would replace money, status and power as the main drivers of society," he added.

But the university Tagore founded is afflicted by these very vices.

Sarkar, an alumnus of Patha Bhavan an Visva Bharati, said he felt "disgusted"seeing the decline of the institution. He appealed to all the well wishers of the university to come together and stem the rot.

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