Amartya Sen denies making phone call to Visva-Bharati Vice-Chancellor
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Academic had claimed Nobel laureate spoke in opposition to eviction of hawkers by introducing himself as “Bharat Ratna Amartya Sen”
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has denied making any phone call — introducing himself as “Bharat Ratna Amartya Sen” — to Visva-Bharati Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty and requesting him not to evict hawkers round his Santiniketan home.
On the night of December 9, throughout a digital assembly with over 350 college members, Prof. Chakrabarty brazenly made a declare that he had obtained a call from Prof. Sen, who recognized himself as “Bharat Ratna Amartya Sen” and requested that hawkers round his home not be evicted as his daughter, who visited Santiniketan typically, can be inconvenienced.
The V-C went on to declare that he prompt to Prof. Sen that he give house to the hawkers inside his property, upon which the Nobel laureate hung up.
The Visva-Bharati PRO couldn’t be reached for touch upon whether or not or why the V-C made such a declare, however a number of college members confirmed that Prof. Chakrabarty had certainly made such a comment.
The Visva-Bharati University Faculty Association (VBUFA), a number of of whose members additionally attended the digital assembly, was fast to seize the problem and its president Sudipta Bhattacharyya emailed the celebrated economist, asking him whether or not he had certainly made such a phone call.
“I am very surprised to hear about what the Vice-Chancellor of Visva-Bharati apparently has declared in an online faculty meeting,” Prof. Sen wrote again to the VBUFA president.
“I do not think I have had such a conversation with him. I should also mention that I have never referred to myself as ‘Bharat Ratna.’ I also don’t think I could have referred to my daughter buying vegetables from the hawkers and that being a reason for keeping the hawkers undisturbed. I don’t know where my daughters buy vegetables! That would be no reason anyway to bring in the question of how the hawkers should be treated. Finally, there are no hawkers outside my home in Santiniketan.”
The Nobel laureate grew up in Pratichi, the home constructed by his father in Santiniketan, and visits it incessantly. He was named Amartya by Rabindranath Tagore.
Prof. Sen additional stated in his electronic mail: “I do think, however, that Visva-Bharati often interferes too much with the normal life of ordinary people, of which setting up walls to interfere with ways and passages of people is a good example. I remember once writing about that some years ago in a newspaper. I also remember my mother, who of course lived in our home (Pratichi), did try to help hawkers from eviction, not outside our home (since there are no hawkers there), but near Pearson Palli. All this is, of course, quite unrelated to the absurd statement that the Vice-Chancellor has allegedly made.”
