Mamata unveils Vidyasagar bust in Kolkata college

KOLKATA:West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday unveiled a bust of Bengali polymath Iswarchandra Vidyasagar at Kolkata’s Hare School, 28 days after another bust of the 19th century reformer was vandalised at a city college during BJP President Amit Shah’s road show.

Banerjee, who was invited by the West Bengal Department of Higher Education and School Education as well as the Vidyasagar bicentennial celebration committee, paid floral tributes to the statue in presence of Bengal’s ministers, intellectuals, teachers and students.

The bust, made of Bronze, will be taken to the nearby Vidyasagar College in College Street where the incident of vandalism had taken place on May 14.

During the controversy, Banerjee had promised that she would get the bust replaced at the earliest.

State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said the bust will be reinstated in the very room where it used to be.

Banerjee will also unveil a full-figure statue of Vidyasagar at the college gate later in the day.
IANS