Bolpur: Economist Amartya Sen has now been backed by another economist and renowned American Nobel Laureate George Arthur Akerlof on the Visva-Bharati land dispute issue.
Akerlof is among the 302 prominent academicians from various universities across the country and abroad who have written to Visva Bharati's inspector and President of India Droupadi Murmu urging her to take action against Visva-Bharati Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty for maligning Sen.
Holding Chakraborty responsible for "various atrocities", the letter has accused him of "unlawful suspension of students and teachers, illegal termination of the employment of faculty members, officers, and other staff" by denying them "freedom of speech" and "suppressing dissent" by issuing show-cause notices, charge-sheets and illegal suspension and termination orders.
In the letter, the academicians had drawn the President's attention on how the university issued a series of letters using indecent language and alleged Sen of illegally grabbing Visva-Bharati's land. Even, eviction notice was put up at his 'Pratichi' residence in Santiniketan.
Earlier, Sen had been supported by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, filmmaker Gautam Ghosh and artists Jogen Chowdhury and Shubhaprasanna Bhattacharya. Economist Kaushik Bose had condemned the university's act and tweeted, 'Shame on India's democracy' while another economist Jayati Ghosh protested the way Sen was treated.
The recent letter to the President demanding action against the university VC has been signed by American linguist Noam Chomsky along with professors from the University of Ulster in England, the University of Alabama in the USA, Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar and professors from several state-aided universities and premier institutes from across the country and abroad.
