Times
of India: New
Delhi: Saturday, 03 May 2014.
In a significant government lapse, Visva Bharati
vice-chancellor Sushanta Datta Gupta who is facing charges of sexual harassment
has been selected for a Padma award. Information accessed through RTI revealed
that his name for the country's highest national honour was suggested by two
Padma awardees.
Datta Gupta's name was recommended by no less than
Prof CNR Rao, a Padma Vibhushan awardee and chairman of the Scientific Advisory
Council to Prime Minister; Prof MGK Menon, another Padma Vibhushan awardee and
former Rajya Sabha member, and K Kasturirangan, member of the Planning
Commission. The information was made public by the home ministry in response to
a RTI plea filed by activist S C Agrawal.
Dutta Gupta's name came under controversy after
the NCW wrote to PM Manmohan Singh seeking the decision to be overturned. In
her letter, NCW chairperson Mamta Sharma said while declaring him as a
Padmashree awardee, the government had completely overlooked the history of his
sexual harassment of a woman colleague during his tenure at the Satyendra Nath
Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences in Kolkata during 2004. She said Datta
Gupta was found guilty of sexual harassment by a ministerial committee set up
by the minister of science and technology in 2005.
"Serious vigilance enquiries are pending on
him at the Central Vigilance Commission and also at the ministry of human
resource development for his alleged misappropriation of funds etc," she
said. Sharma also cited a complaint from the West Bengal's Women's Commission
which stated that such an award and his appointment as VC would only encourage
offences against women.
Last month, the West Bengal Women's Commission
chairperson Sunanda Mukherjee had written to NCW, PM and President demanding
withdrawal of Padmashree to Datta Gupta and his removal him from the post of VC
of the central university located in Rabindranath Tagore's abode of
Shantiniketan in West Bengal.
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