Presidency varsity plaque with Jan Sangh founder's name vandalised

Kolkata:  Unknown miscreants vandalised a plaque with Jansangh founder Shyama Prasad Mookerjee's name engraved on it in the Presidency University on Monday, officials said.

Mookerjee's name, along with those of other icons, was engraved on the university's bi-centennianl commemorative plaque. The educationist-politician was an illustriuous alumni of the Presidency College, the earlier avatar of the university.

On Monday morning, it was found that his name has been inked out.

The university has formed a five-member probe committee.

"Whoever has done it, will not be spared," said Vice Chancellor Anuradha Lohia.

West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee condemned the act.

The state BJP has demanded stringent punishment for the perpetrators.

This is the second attack on Mookerjee's memorabilia in the state t his month.

Seven members of an extremist left-wing student organisation were arrested for allegedly vandalising and blackening his marble bust in Kolkata's Keoratola crematorium ground on March 7.

The vandalism happened after a statue of Dravidian icon and social reformer E.V.R. Ramasamy, popularly known as Periyar, was razed in Tamil Nadu's Vellore, while two statues of Russian communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin were pulled down in Tripura allegedly by the BJP-RSS activists.