Kolkata – Visva-Bharati University has played host to many a foreign dignitary in the past.
But its choice of celebrity to inaugurate the golden jubilee celebrations of the department of Indo-Tibetan studies has raised more than a passing interest.
Exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama has given his consent to throw open the function on November 24.”We have just received his consent,” vice-chancellor Sujit Basu Basu told TNN on Thursday.
The Dalai will, however, not be visiting Shantiniketan. The inaugural programme will be held at Rabindra Sadan here.
The Tibetan spiritual leader will address a gathering at Rabindra Sadan after which he will visit the university’s publication section on AJC Bose Road.
“In his consent letter he expressed his desire to visit Shantiniketan but the Union ministry of human resources and development advised us to avoid this for security reasons,” Basu said.
Keeping in mind the international ramifications of the visit, the university first sought permission from the Union HRD ministry (which controls the university), which in turn got the visit cleared from the Union home ministry.
