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Rabi Banerjee
Rabi Banerjee

KOLKATA

PM not invited for Presidency Uni celebrations

PTI12_24_2016_000060B (File) Prime Minister Narendra Modi

The Presidency University (earlier Presidency college) decided against inviting PM Narendra Modi for its grand 200 year celebration, which will begin on January 20.

Instead, the celebration committee will invite former prime minister Manmohan Singh and President Pranab Mukherjee as guests of honour to speak on the occasion.

The committee said that both Singh and Mukherjee have agreed to attend the function.

“Both of them have given us their approval,” said Jayanta Mitra, president of the committee and an alumnus of the college.

Though both of them will be addressing the historic occasion, none of them are alumni of the institution, known as one of the first colleges in India set up at the onset of British rule in India. Nobel laureates Ronald Ross and Amartya Sen are alumni of the institution. 

The college was once known as one of the finest institutes in the world.

Some of the notable alumni of the college are scientist Satyan Bose, Swami Vivekananda, film star Ashok Kumar, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose (though was expelled for hitting a British professor), Satyajit Ray, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Amartya Sen, Bibhutibhusan Bandoyapadhya and so on.

Even former chief ministers Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee passed out from this historic institution.

The college was set up in 1817 by a band of progressive leaders like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, with British educationist David Hare. The college changed name three times. It was first the Hindu college, later renamed as presidency college and now presidency university.

Many famous economists, who have received international acclaim, passed out from this institution.

But what surprised many was that the country’s prime minister was not invited to celebrate the grand occasion.

“We have not invited him, keeping in mind the secular fabric of the institution’s history,” said a member of the committee.  

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Topics : #Narendra Modi

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