AgenciesKolkata: Mamata Banerjee and her challenger the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday traded barbs over a Visva-Bharati University event, addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and allegedly skipped by the West Bengal Chief Minister. The university's centenary celebrations saw the Prime Minister highlighting its iconic founder Rabindranath Tagore's objective of "Aatmanirbhar Bharat" or self-reliant India behind setting up the university.
PM Modi, in the presence of West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankar and Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, said the university evolved from centuries of the Indian ethos and embodied Indian nationalist sentiment during Independence under Tagore's guidance.
"Be it the Visva-Bharati University, Banaras Hindu University, Aligarh Muslim University, Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Andhra University, Anna Malai University, and several others (they all) are premier institutions and came up around the same time, in the same era, and gave momentum to India's thirst for knowledge. We must take inspiration from all those who have contributed to making India great over the centuries and millennia. That is why we are now at the stage to create an Aatmanirbhar Bharat," he said. The Prime Minister also recalled Tagore's visits to Gujarat to meet his brother who was posted there, and that he wrote two of his famous poems there.
The event provided yet another flashpoint between the two political rival parties when Banerjee said she was never invited for the event, a claim countered by the BJP which produced the university's letter inviting the chief minister on December 4, and accused her of insulting Tagore's institution by not attending the function.
The chief minister insisted that she did not receive any invite, and that the BJP was trying to destroy all icons of Bengal, "just as they broke the statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar." She also blamed the BJP for dragging Nobel laureate Amartya Sen into the list of those who have illegally occupied land in Shantiniketan, terming it vengeance towards Sen who was ideologically opposed to the BJP.
Her party TMC's Bratya Bose too said he was not aware of any letter inviting the CM in the last 15 days. "There was no invitation in the last 15 days. Maybe it came last night. But I don't know. There is decorum. If you invite someone, you can't do it at the last minute. Is that the protocol? She is the chief minister of Bengal. You can't insult her in this way," he said. Bose further said the PM had used wrong names for Tagore's relatives and had tried to confine the Visvakavi to Gujarat.
PM Modi, in the presence of West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankar and Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, said the university evolved from centuries of the Indian ethos and embodied Indian nationalist sentiment during Independence under Tagore's guidance.
"Be it the Visva-Bharati University, Banaras Hindu University, Aligarh Muslim University, Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Andhra University, Anna Malai University, and several others (they all) are premier institutions and came up around the same time, in the same era, and gave momentum to India's thirst for knowledge. We must take inspiration from all those who have contributed to making India great over the centuries and millennia. That is why we are now at the stage to create an Aatmanirbhar Bharat," he said. The Prime Minister also recalled Tagore's visits to Gujarat to meet his brother who was posted there, and that he wrote two of his famous poems there.
The event provided yet another flashpoint between the two political rival parties when Banerjee said she was never invited for the event, a claim countered by the BJP which produced the university's letter inviting the chief minister on December 4, and accused her of insulting Tagore's institution by not attending the function.
The chief minister insisted that she did not receive any invite, and that the BJP was trying to destroy all icons of Bengal, "just as they broke the statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar." She also blamed the BJP for dragging Nobel laureate Amartya Sen into the list of those who have illegally occupied land in Shantiniketan, terming it vengeance towards Sen who was ideologically opposed to the BJP.
Her party TMC's Bratya Bose too said he was not aware of any letter inviting the CM in the last 15 days. "There was no invitation in the last 15 days. Maybe it came last night. But I don't know. There is decorum. If you invite someone, you can't do it at the last minute. Is that the protocol? She is the chief minister of Bengal. You can't insult her in this way," he said. Bose further said the PM had used wrong names for Tagore's relatives and had tried to confine the Visvakavi to Gujarat.
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4 Comments on this Story
 | Anil Dabir35 minutes ago Mamata should have had the magnanimity to attend the event without waiting on her ego |
 | Dillip Patnaik48 minutes ago Modi is a nonsense fellow, thinks he knows everything. He never ever read a line of Gitanjali. He has no brain to talk about the world famous Nobel laureate who composed the national anthem. He thinks Bengalis are fools to vote BJB. Stupid should not step into Bengal, stay in Banaras. |
| Binu Pillai1 hour ago @chandra : truly said. |