On Monday, 11th November 2019, Visva Bharati University West Bengal, conducted its annual convocation ceremony. President Ram Nath Kovind had addressed the students, parents and the varsity at the 2019 Visva Bharati University Convocation.
While addressing to the students, parents and the varsity, President Ram Nath Kovind called his visit a pilgrimage as Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore had intermittently met each other at Santiniketan. Nobel Laureate and poet Rabindranath Tagore is the founder of the Visva Bharati University in West Bengal.
In his words, President Ram Nath Kovind stated that the site (Santiniketan) is “one of the blessed sites” where the future and the “civilizational values of India” had been restructured which defines India. He added that the place was the site where new energy had been inculcated in the national life of India.
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In his statements, he mentioned the reason as to why the visit is similar to a pilgrimage was because of the “two greatest visionaries of Modern India”, i.e. Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi. Further adding, he stated that he comes to the Varsity as not just a Paridarsaka (visitor), but as a “humble pilgrim and a seeker for the answers to our eternal quest for wisdom”.
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Last year, at the Convocation Ceremony held at the Visva Bharati University, Prime Minister Narendra Modi graced the event. With PM Modi, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina and the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also graced the convocation ceremony at the Varsity in 2018.