NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor lauded External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his ministry on Tuesday for setting up the Nalanda University campus in Bihar and many other unsung contributions to the country.
“…I was hugely impressed by the Nalanda University campus while attending the @nalandalitlive. My warm congratulations to @DrSJaishankar and @IndianDiplomacy for this wonderful achievement, which deserves a higher rating among the many unsung contributions of MEA to our nation,” Tharoor said in a post on X.
The former Union minister was in the Nalanda University for a literature festival being organised there.
“I came to Bihar to witness its culture, not to fulfil any political agenda. I encourage others to explore the Bihar Museum and the Bapu Tower,” Tharoor told reporters in Patna.
Tharoor has often lauded the Narendra Modi government and made remarks that are at variance with his party’s and its leadership’s views.
On Monday, the MP from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram said, “India no longer hosts any of the world’s leading universities…. While a few universities have now entered the top 200, none figure among the top 10 or even the top 50 worldwide.”
He welcomed the revival of the Nalanda University as a symbol of India’s civilisational legacy.
The Nalanda Mahavihara site comprises the archaeological remains of a monastic and scholastic institution dating from the third century BCE to the 13th century CE. The ruins of the centre of learning are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a coveted tag it earned in 2016.
Tharoor said the ancient university was a leading educational institution of the world, “not just because there was no competition, but also because it was an extraordinary institution”.
He called it a matter of “great, great satisfaction” that the university has been re-established after nearly 800 years of its “third and lasting” destruction by Bakhtyar Khilji in around 1200 AD. (PTI)
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