Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu (right) confers Gyan Ratna on eminent art historian B.N Goswami (centre) at the 67th convocation of Panjab University on Sunday. V-C Arun Grover looks on. (Express photo by Sahil Walia)
VICE-PRESIDENT M Venkaiah Naidu’s address did not dwell on the central government’s plans for Panjab University, but on the importance of mastering the mother tongue and dedication towards excellence for India’s youth at the varsity’s 67th convocation on Sunday.
“Remember the language that comes from your mother’s womb. Own language is like eyesight, and another language is like a pair of spectacles to support the eyesight,” he said.
Naidu said he felt happy to be part of the “seniormost university of the country”. “It’s our tradition and legacy to honour and respect elders. Whoever has talent should be felicitated as a mark of respect and to inspire others,” he said, praising the varsity for honouring eminent personalities and alumni in academia.
He urged universities to become centres of excellence, saying the need of the hour was to “reform, perform and transform”. He added that there was no substitute for ethics and value system.
The Vice-President called for youngsters to give more importance to institutions and told them that “regulations were not strangulations”, staunchly maintaining that India could never disintegrate and its diversity only made it stronger.
“I don’t bother much with things such as Hindutva. Hindu is a culture, a way of life. We shouldn’t unnecessarily get into controversy centred around religion,” he added.
He said “we should all agree to disagree and nothing could come from denigrating those who were different than us”. Stressing how colleges should create a conducive atmosphere for learning, he said, “I don’t think there’s any need to go abroad to study anymore. You have everything you need in your motherland. If you want to get out, then you should, but learn and then return.”
Naidu cited former President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Narendra Modi as examples of as to what dedication and hard work could achieve. He added that one sold newspapers to support his family and the other sold tea.
He said the division between science and humanities was for the sake of it, adopted in the process of creating the institutions of academia.
“How can science not be human, if it is an activity carried on by human beings? How can humanities not be scientific if it has to properly observe its subjects? Nature, culture and future is interrelated,” he said, adding, “Google can never replace guru. Mother, native place, mother tongue and teacher should be given utmost importance.”
Vice-Chancellor Arun K Grover, who spoke about the varsity’s rich legacy and its present status, talked about the application to the Ministry of Human Resource Development to become an Institute of Eminence.
“Infrastructure and funds will encourage younger faculty and research scholars to make PU an institution to reckon with,” he said. The varsity is facing a financial crunch as well as shortage of staff.
Writers and intellectuals of Punjab have staged protests demanding that Punjabi be given ‘first language’ status in Chandigarh. In October 2017, students of Punjabi department at PU had started a campus drive to save the status of the language as the administration was only using English and Hindi on signboards. The students’ council supported the drive stating that all three languages should be used on signboards as it was their “mother tongue”. Later, in November, the varsity started work to paint the signboards with all three languages with Punjabi on top.
884 students awarded degrees
At the 67th Annual Convocation of Panjab University, Chandigarh, on Sunday. (Express photo by Sahil Walia)
As many as 884 students of Panjab University (PU) were awarded various degrees at its 67th annual convocation on Sunday.
The ceremony began with the PU anthem, penned by lyricist and alumnus Irshad Kamil, with 324 research scholars from 16 states and countries like Afghanistan, Thailand and Iran lining up to collect their degrees. Seven from Iran were awarded their PhDs, besides one each from Thailand and Afghanistan.
In India, Punjab has the highest number of PhDs at 122, followed by Chandigarh (56), Haryana (55) and Himachal Pradesh (42). The maximum number of PhDs (98) were awarded to scholars from the faculty of sciences, followed by arts (75) and languages (43).
Vice President and PU Chancellor M Venkaiah Naidu awarded Doctor of Science Honoris Causa degrees to scientist Prof M M Sharma and Particle Physicist Prof Sir Tejinder Singh Virdee. He also awarded Doctor of Law Honoris Causa degree to 44th chief justice of India Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar.
The varsity also recognised the achievements of ‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh, awarding him the Khel Rattan Award. Art historian and critic Prof B N Goswamy received the Gyan Rattan Award and social entrepreneur Sunil Kant Munjal received Udyog Rattan Award.
Besides, the first Shiv Nath Rai Kohli Memorial Mid Career Best Scientist award 2017-18 went to Vandana Bhalla, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, GNDU, Amritsar, and Sanjay Jain, Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmaceutics, NIPER, Mohali. The award carries a cash prize of Rs 50,000 and a citation.
The Chancellor also inaugurated National Academic Depository for issuing online degrees from the next academic session, taking a step ahead in following the digitisation scheme of the central government.
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