Congress fumes as plaques in Visva-Bharati have Modi's name, but omit Tagore

The Congress on Monday, 23 October, slammed the Narendra Modi government over the plaques installed at West Bengal’s Visva-Bharati to mark the university being declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site for carrying the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is the Chancellor of the university, and Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty, but making no mention of its founder Rabindranath Tagore.

Slamming the government, Congress General Secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal said that today the chief peddler of fear, hate and division has named himself ‘Acharya’ at the great Shantiniketan.

In a post on X, Twitter, Venugopal said, “Rabindranath Tagore famously said, ‘Freedom from fear is the freedom I claim for you, my Motherland’. Today, the chief peddler of fear, hate and division has named himself ‘Acharya’ at the great Shantiniketan, omitting Tagore altogether! Delusion knows no limits.”

Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said, “In this obsession with naming and renaming, perhaps the Prime Minister must consider renaming Narcissism as Modicissism.”

Even Congress General Secretary (Communication) Jairam Ramesh replying to Khera said, “Erasure of (Pandit Jawaharlal) Nehru wasn’t enough. Now, erasure of Rabindranath Tagore also begins.”

Shantiniketan, the famed place in West Bengal where poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore built Visva-Bharati over a century ago, is now on the UNESCO World Heritage List.