Bengal CM Assures Support to Amartya Sen Amid Land Grab Charges

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written to Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen assuring her support.

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

(Photo: Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

A day after she condemned the land controversy revolving around Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written to the noted economist on Friday, 25 December, assuring her support.

The controversy began when a purported note prepared by the prestigious Viswa-Bharati University authorities, listing names of alleged encroachers of university property, including Amartya Sen, began doing the rounds.

“I respect Amartya Sen. The whole country and the world does. Everyone in Bengal is proud of him. He is a Nobel laureate. Rabindranath Tagore, Amartya Sen, Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee and Mother Teresa are our legends. Do you really believe Amartya Sen will have to encroach land in Santiniketan?”

Mamata Banerjee, Chief of West Bengal

Banerjee called this yet another conspiracy by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to malign Bengal and added that she wanted to express her solidarity with him in his battles against the “bigotry of the majoritarians” in the country.

“I write this letter to express my surprise and anguish over some recent developments, as I read about them in media, alluding to your ancestral links in Santiniketan,” Banerjee said in her letter to Sen.

“Some nouveau invaders in Visva Bharati have started raising surprising & baseless allegations about your familial properties...I want to express my solidarity with you in your battles against bigotry of majoritarians," her tweet read.

Banerjee pointed out that the Sen family was “weaved in the culture and fabric of Santiniketan, inalienably.”

Banerjee urged Sen to count on her as his “sister and friend”, and that, “We shall overcome”.