Land controversy irrelevant: Amartya Sen

SANTINIKETAN: Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on Thursday said any controversy over the land row with Visva-Bharati was "irrelevant" since his father had willed it to his mother, and after her, he inherited Pratichi. "Questions, if any, has to be asked to the VB vice-chancellor," Sen told reporters, while leaving Santiniketan. Sen is scheduled to leave for the USA via Mumbai.

Asked whether he felt dejected that he had to leave Santiniketan with the issue unresolved, he said: "Why should it be unresolved? My father had written in his will that after him, this (land) would go to my mother. After her, it would come to me. What is there to argue about?"

Sen did not want to be drawn into any controversy over VB vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty's "buro khoka (overgrown children)" barb at ashramites. "If the vice-chancellor likes to use such words, only he can explain why. He may have used it, but he should understand whether (what he says) is irrelevant."