Kolkata, October 10: The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has appointed Bidyut Chakrabarty- currently a Professor of Political Science at Delhi University- as the Vice Chancellor (VC) of Visva Bharati University. A senior MHRD Official had told earlier that President Ram Nath Kovind had cleared the panel of names that was forwarded by the Ministry. The news of confirmed appointment came on October 9 evening.
With this appointment, Visva Bharati University, also known as Shantiniketan, will finally have a permanent Vice Chancellor after a long gap of nearly three years. The Central University had been functioning under an acting Vice Chancellor since former President Pranab Mukherjee had approved the dismissal of the then Vice Chancellor Sushanta Dattagupta in February, 2016 on account of financial and administrative irregularities.
A Rigourous Selection Proceess
The appointment of Bidyut Chakarabarty has been done following a long, regimented selection process. The procedure for appointment of a Vice Chancellor of a Central University usually begins with the constitution of a Search Committee. This committee had interviewed 14 prominent academicians as candidates for the position on July 29th this year and sent a panel of recommended names to the MHRD. The panel included four other names besides Bidyut Chakarabarty: Abhijit Chakraborty- former VC of Jadhavpur University, Mahua Mukherjee- former Rabindranath Chair Professor of ICCR at Dhaka University, Asha Mukherjee- Professor of Philosophy at Visva Bharati and Sabujkali Sen- acting VC of Visva Bharati.
The Appointment Controversies
There has been much controversy surrounding the delay in this appointment. Initially, the President had given his consent to the appointment of Swapan Kumar Datta as the VC. However, the Ministry requested the President to reconsider the decision considering some doubts over his credentials. Following the request from the Ministry, the panel of names suggested by the Ministry itself was scrapped by the President’s Office and a fresh committee was constituted under Kapil Kumar. Various sources have said that Bidyut Chakrabarty faced allegations of sexual harassment in 2007, which had held up his possible appointment as VC of Delhi University. Although, he has been cleared of all charges by the courts and vigilance.
Specialising in Public Administration, Chakrabarty completed his MA in 1978 from Presidency College, Calcutta University. He went on to do his PhD from the London School of Economics in 1985. He began his career as an Assistant Professor at Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He joined Delhi University in 1998 and has been teaching there since then. He has also taught at his alma mater, London School of Economics; Wolfson College, Cambridge; University of Melbourne; University of Hamburg and the National University of Singapore. He was a student at the Ballygunge Government School where his father taught.
