Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday in Lok Sabha took on the senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury over his claim that he violated the “dignity of Shantiniketan by sitting in the chair of Rabindranath Tagore” during his recent visit to West Bengal.
While showing some pictures of former president Pranab Mukherjee, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and a few other political leaders sitting by the “window” to sign the visitor’s book, he said, “I did not sit in Rabindranath Tagore’s chair. I want to clarify in the Lok Sabha that I did not intend to hurt any sentiments.” Referring to a letter by the Vice-Chancellor of Shantiniketan, Shah said that there was no violation by him during his visit to the place as he didn’t sit in the chair but by a window.
Vice-Chancellor of Shantiniketan said in a letter to Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, “This is regarding your statement during the parliamentary session today (February 8) that the Home Minister Amit Shah had supposedly sat in the chair of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore during his official visit to the campus on January 20, 2021.”
“You (Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury) have unfortunately been misinformed, as this is patently untrue. In the past, during their official visits for Uttarayan, a number of dignitaries, including the former Chancellors, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Madam Sheikh Hasina, among leaders, have sat in that makeshift seat, which is actually just the edge of a window on which cushions are placed,” the letter reads.
This fact has been documented in photographs, which I have already shared with you on Whatsapp, he said in the letter, adding that “thus, not only a chair but it has never been Gurudev’s seat at all.”
On 20 January, the Home Minister visited Vishwa Bharti University at Shantiniketan in Birbhum district and paid tribute to Rabindranath Tagore.