WB CM Mamata Banerjee skipped Visva-Bharati centenary: BJP lashes out with letter invite

Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed  Visva-Bharati University's centenary celebrations in presence of West Bengal Goverr and Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, BJP's Amit Malviya has said that West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has insulted Rabindranath Tagore by t attending event. Sharing letter that was sent by University to Bengal CM inviting her for event, Malviya claimed that for Mamata Banerjee, politics is more important than legacy of Gurudev. He claimed that CM Mamata's "narrow-mindedness" is pushing Bengal towards darkness.

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Mamata Banerjee had earlier in day tweeted on occasion of Visva-Bharati's 100 years. She had said that this temple of learning was Rabindranath Tagore’s greatest experiment on creating ideal human being. "We must preserve vision and philosophy of this great visionary," she added.

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PM addresses Visva-Bharati University's centenary celebrations 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday addressed centenary celebrations of Visva-Bharati University at Shantiniketan through video conferencing and also shared a lesser-kwn fact. - Rabindranath Tagore's connection with Gujarat.  West Bengal Goverr and Union Education Minister were also present during ceremony.  Prime Minister said that Rabindranath Tagore's connection to his home state assumes significance as it teaches importance of One India and shows spirit of Unity in Diversity in country.

Prime Minister, who is  Chancellor of University, shared Gurudev's vision for Visva Bharati and said that it is also essence of Atmanirbhar Bharat, which is path of India's welfare for world welfare. Founded by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore in 1921, Visva-Bharati was declared a Central University and an Institution of National Importance by an Act of Parliament in May 1951.

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West Bengal assembly elections

Prime Minister Modi's address comes ahead of West Bengal assembly elections and BJP massive outreach plan. West Bengal assembly with 294 seats will go to polls in April-May 2021, Trinamool holds 222 seats. BJP has made major inroads in state in Lok Sabha elections winning 18 seats, and establishing itself as major Opposition force in state. Recently TMC trumped BJP in all 3 bypolls but BJP is using its booth-level strategy, has placed its top leaders including Amit Shah and JP Nadda in state for winning upcoming elections.

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