Visva-Bharati convocation to skip Desikottam award

BOLPUR: The Desikottam, Visva-Bharati’s highest accolade, will not be awarded by its chancellor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi during its Friday convocation. The university cited paucity of time behind the decision.
In April, the Visva-Bharati academic council had proposed to honour Amitabh Bachchan, Amitav Ghosh, Gulzar, Suniti Kumar Pathak, Dwijen Mukherjee, Ashok Sen and Jogen Chowdhury with the Desikottam award.The university executive council had approved it in May. The university made a formal announcement of the names before it was then send to the MHRD for ratification. The university has received no communication from the MHRD.
The Prime Minister is the university chancellor. The last time a chancellor was present at the convocation at Visva-Bharati was in 2008, when Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister. There has been no convocation in the central university for the past four years, officials said.
A senior university official, requesting anonymity, said, “We had only announced that those names were recommended by the academic council. The same names were forwarded by the executive council to MHRD for the final approval from the chancellor, the Prime Minister. As confirmation has not yet been received by us we didn’t convey any message to the persons, whose names were recommended.” The official refused to comment whether the list of names have been cancelled and whether a new set of recommendations will be made.
Painter Jogen Chowdhury, whose name was proposed, said he would not attend the convocation programme. Chowdhury said, “It may cause discomfort to those people whose names were announced. This is unprecedented and happened for the first time in the history of Visva Bharati convocation. Visva Bharati is a central government institution so the central government should look in to the decision of not giving Desikottam.” Chowdhury said he will not go to the convocation programme but attend the inauguration of Bangladesh Bhawan.
Chowdhury, also a Trinamool Congress MP, said, “I have received general invitation to the two programmes, the convocation and the inauguration of the Bangladesh Bhawan, but have no information on the Desikottam. I have learnt that along with others my name was proposed for the prestigious award. Again, I have learnt from sources that this year no one will be given Desikottam. It was not desired. I don’t know why have they taken such decision but I think what happened was not appropriate with the tradition of Visva-Bharati.”