People's Democracy

                   Investigation Into Viswa Bharati Theft Proceeds Apace

The level of incompetence of existing security arrangements at Viswa Bharati, a central government-run university is shocking beyond disbelief. There are but two National Volunteer Forces men guarding the priceless gems of collections of memorabilia of Tagore. There are no security alarms, and certainly, no video cameras focussed and no close circuit TV sets to guard the Uttarayan collection. No alarm bells existed. The Viswa Bharati would not allow the state government to put forth police and security help.

Happen it did last week when on March 25, deep into the night, what appeared to have been a large and organised gang of thieves, working to plan, broke into the Uttarayan complex and made off with more than fifty pieces of priceless treasures including the Nobel medallion that Tagore had been awarded, and articles of daily use of the Tagore family per se.

Perhaps the only saving grace of the occasion, if it could be called that, was that most of the rare pictures in the Tagore collection were left behind probably because they were found to be too large and cumbersome to be carried by the nimble-fingered brigade who had vandalised the plethora of national treasures.

The reaction of the Viswa Bharati vice-chancellor was slow and tepid, to say the least. In the meanwhile, the Left Front government, the Left Front, and the plethora of Bengal intellectuals had voiced their loud protestations against the crime which, they correctly alleged could well have international connections since the underground antique markets of Italy and Russia have apparently become very restive hours after the theft had taken place. Was it anticipation, one wonders, of things that would come out of India?

Moving beyond protests, Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee visited the spot, and ordered police enquiries to start immediately, deploying the top sleuths of the police who specialise in solving big crimes, especially burglaries and thefts. Statewide searches, and beyond has since been going on and a few suspects have been rounded up and are being interrogated.

The reactions of the opposition were much along expected lines. The BJP-Trinamul Congress would not go beyond making the state LF government "directly respon-sible for the crime." The Pradesh Congress, just to add variety to the basic tune, called for the resignation of the Viswa Bharati VC. The corporate media send out signals much in the same vein.

But theirs are voices drowned in the vast and sweeping indignation that has overwhelmed the masses at the dastardly nature of the crime which needs to be solved and the artefacts recovered as early as possible. The task, as Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee put it, "brooks no delay at all."

IN a joint bilateral meeting with the Coal India management held in Kolkata on March 16, all central trade unions, including INTUC, AITUC, CITU, and BMS registered their strong protest against the manner in which union coal minister Mamata Banerjee is attempting to play politics over the laying of a foundation stone of a proposed Coal India hospital.

All-India president of the CITU, Dr M K Pandhe said that the foundation stone laying ceremony was allowed to take a political character under Banerjee’s aegis. Dr Pandhe said that at a time when the conditions of the coalmines were getting from bad to worse, and when funds were not forthcoming from Coal India to tackle to the problems including that of subsidence, Banerjee’s laying of the foundation stone was a politically motivated move.

Dr Pandhe disclosed that before laying the foundation stone for the proposed hospital (and for which no funds could be earmarked by the Coal India Ltd.,) Mamata Banerjee would not have the courtesy to consult with the welfare board under her own ministry. Both the BMS and the HMS leaders, too, dubbed the foundation stone laying as a purely politically motivated move as did the AITUC and the INTUC leadership. The Coal India chairman assured the TU leadership that he "would have the entire matter looked into for a report back."