New Delhi: Plaques installed in West Bengal’s Visva-Bharati university to mark the varsity being declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site have courted controversy for carrying the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is the chancellor of the university, and vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty, but making no mention of founder Rabindranath Tagore.Three such plaques have been installed at the university, The Hindu quoted a Visva-Bharati spokesperson as saying. Visva-Bharati is a central university.A section of faculty members as well as leaders of the opposition have raised their voice against this development.“UNESCO specifically said they are honouring Rabindranath Tagore and his unique legacy by declaring Santiniketan as a World Heritage Site. — A megalomaniac VC and his boss seem to think UNESO is honouring them!!” TMC MP Jawhar Sircar said on X (formerly Twitter).“Does Modi ji think he is bigger than Tagore? He can grow a long beard before the Bengal elections, but he can never appropriate the legacy of Tagore,” Congress spokesperson Shama Mohamed said.Visva-Bharati university, founded by the great Rabindranath Tagore, has installed three plaques describing Santiniketan as a Unesco world heritage site that feature the names of PM @narendramodi and VC Bidyut Chakrabarty, but omit the name of Tagore himself!Does Modi ji think…— Dr. Shama Mohamed (@drshamamohd) October 23, 2023On September 17 this year, UNESCO had designation Santiniketan – a residential school and learning area for the arts set up by Tagaore in 1901 – as a World Heritage Site. ” A ‘world university’ was established at Santiniketan in 1921, recognizing the unity of humanity or “Visva Bharati”. Distinct from the prevailing British colonial architectural orientations of the early 20th century and of European modernism, Santiniketan represents approaches toward a pan-Asian modernity, drawing on ancient, medieval and folk traditions from across the region,” UNESCO says on its website. The UNESCO inscription makes no mention of Modi or Chakraborty.The university has been under a shadow for a while now, with several faculty members raising serious allegations against Chakraborty and also fighting a legal battle against him.