Vice President Ansari goes down memory lane in JNU
26 March 2013 6:18 AM IST
‘I am happy to be back in the salubrious surroundings of the Jawaharlal Nehru University and feel privileged to be invited to deliver the first G Parthasarathi Memorial Lecture,’ said Vice President M Hamid Ansari.
Ansari also said, ‘Gopalaswami Parthasarathi was the first Vice-Chancellor of this institution. He helped shape it physically and spiritually, and a memorial lecture is perhaps an appropriate way of reminding posterity of his multi-faceted personality and diverse pursuits.’
According to Ansari, ‘GP’ as he was popularly known, has been described as ‘one of the most influential figures in our national life and a fine product of the Nehru era. ‘His contributions were wide-ranging, solid and unadvertised. Former president K R Narayanan had called him “an undeclared social rebel” who “made no fuss about his radical social approach to life.” And veteran diplomat late A K Damodran wrote in a memorial volume, “He was never a Marxist, but he was personally a socialist”.’
Ansari further said, ‘He believed in and articulated the Nehruvian approach to world affairs, promotion of world peace, de-colonisation, non-alignment of power blocs, strategic autonomy, friendship to all, and promotion of India’s development and the hierarchy of national interests as perceived from time to time. In the post-Cold War world of our times, GP would have felt vindicated on some aspects and acutely unhappy on others. The diplomat in him would have relished responding creatively to the new challenges.’
Ansari also said, ‘Gopalaswami Parthasarathi was the first Vice-Chancellor of this institution. He helped shape it physically and spiritually, and a memorial lecture is perhaps an appropriate way of reminding posterity of his multi-faceted personality and diverse pursuits.’
According to Ansari, ‘GP’ as he was popularly known, has been described as ‘one of the most influential figures in our national life and a fine product of the Nehru era. ‘His contributions were wide-ranging, solid and unadvertised. Former president K R Narayanan had called him “an undeclared social rebel” who “made no fuss about his radical social approach to life.” And veteran diplomat late A K Damodran wrote in a memorial volume, “He was never a Marxist, but he was personally a socialist”.’
Ansari further said, ‘He believed in and articulated the Nehruvian approach to world affairs, promotion of world peace, de-colonisation, non-alignment of power blocs, strategic autonomy, friendship to all, and promotion of India’s development and the hierarchy of national interests as perceived from time to time. In the post-Cold War world of our times, GP would have felt vindicated on some aspects and acutely unhappy on others. The diplomat in him would have relished responding creatively to the new challenges.’
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