{"id":11227,"date":"2020-12-24T16:41:14","date_gmt":"2020-12-24T11:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/34.22.110.190\/english\/?p=11227"},"modified":"2021-01-05T03:07:09","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T21:37:09","slug":"viswa-bharati-centenary-pm-modis-comments-on-tagore-draws-trinamool-criticism-mamata-banerjee-says-she-was-not-invited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/viswa-bharati-centenary-pm-modis-comments-on-tagore-draws-trinamool-criticism-mamata-banerjee-says-she-was-not-invited\/","title":{"rendered":"Viswa Bharati centenary: PM Modi\u2019s comments on Tagore draws Trinamool criticism, Mamata Banerjee says she was not invited"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Narendra Modi \u2013 speaking at the Viswa Bharati University on its centenary on Thursday \u2013 said that Rabindranath Tagore\u2019s vision was at the core of \u201cAtmanirbhar Bharat\u201d or self-reliant India. PM Modi said that Viswa Bharati presented a nationalist sentiment during Independence, something that is reflected in the concept of Atmanirbhar Bharat<\/em>. He was speaking at a virtual address to Viswa Bharati University in Santiniketan.<\/p>\n

Mentioning several premier institutions that were set up around that time, PM Modi said that these led to the yearning for knowledge. \u201cAs more people get more education today, we have to make a strong and self-reliant nation,\u201d he said. He mentioned Viswa Bharati, Banaras Hindu University, Aligarh Muslim University, Anna Malai University and several other institutions.<\/p>\n

Trinamool Congress reacted sharply to PM Modi\u2019s speech, and added that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was not invited to the event. Banerjee herself reiterated that she had not been invited. The BJP showed the university\u2019s letter claming Banerjee had been invited, and accused her of insulting Tagore\u2019s institution by not attending the function.<\/p>\n

Mamata Banerjee said that neither she nor her office had received any invite \u2013 either a written letter or a phone call \u2013 from the Viswha Bharati authorities. \u201cI was only requested to visit if possible when I go to Bolpur on December 29. But I already have a tight schedule there, so I won\u2019t be able to. However, I was not invited for today\u2019s programme,\u201d she said. \u201cI have congratulated in my message on Twitter those who have been associated with the University for so long. The glorious past cannot change for those who are there today, it cannot change because of the dominance of religious extremism today,\u201d she said. About those in charge today, Banerjee said, \u201ctheir days are numbered\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking on PM Modi\u2019s speech, the Trinamool Congress pointed out his comments on Viswa Bharati representing nationalism. \u201cTagore had said that nationalism is the most divisive, and the poet in his works showed how religion divides,\u201d Trinamool Congress leader Bratya Basu said. He also pointed out that the PM\u2019s attempt to highlight Tagore\u2019s connect to his home state Gujarat was unnecessary.<\/p>\n

Speaking for Bengal\u2019s ruling party, Bratya Basu pointed out some \u201cpronunciation and factual errors\u201d in PM Modi’s speech. \u201cTagore\u2019s brother who was in Gujarat, was not his eldest brother. Also, his wife\u2019s name was Gyanadanandini and the story mentioned by the Prime Minister about her way of using the saree\u2019s anchol<\/em> is only half the truth, because apart from the Gujarati influence, she was also influenced by the Parsis in this, and the PM perhaps did not want to mention the Parsis,\u201d Basu said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trinamool Congress questions Modi’s use of “nationalism” with reference to Tagore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":279,"featured_media":5027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[387,57,524,375,49,92,583,46,403],"tmauthors":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nation","8":"tag-assembly-elections-2021","9":"tag-bjp","10":"tag-bratya-basu","11":"tag-centre-state-relations","12":"tag-mamata-banerjee","13":"tag-narendra-modi","14":"tag-top-story","15":"tag-trinamool-congress","16":"tag-west-bengal-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/279"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11227"},{"taxonomy":"tmauthors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tmauthors?post=11227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}