West Bengal govt plans to introduce new book on Vidyasagar in schools

“As we are celebrating the 200th birth anniversary of Vidyasagar, we have decided to pay tribute to this great son of the soil by bringing out a book. The book will be a tribute to his contribution to the society, to education and to improve people’s lives. It will contain a collection of essays and pictures,” he said.

On May 14, a bust of Vidyasagar’s at a college in Kolkata was vandalised in clashes between BJP and TMC workers during BJP president Amit Shah’s roadshow. Both parties had accused each other of destroying the bust and vandalising the college campus. Later on June 11, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee unveiled a new statue of Vidyasagar at the same spot. Since then, the state government has given importance to restore the image of Vidyasagar among the people.

“We want the book to be part of the school syllabus, so that our future generation will learn about his contributions. We want students of all classes to read it. But the decision on this will be taken by the education minister,” Majumdar said.

ABVP to observe September 20 as ‘Matribhasha Dibas’

The West Bengal unit of the RSS students’ wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), will observe September 20 as “Matribhasha Dibas” (Mother Tongue Day) across the state in the memory of the two students — Tapas Barman and Rajesh Sarkar — who died during a stir in Uttar Dinajpur’s Darivit on this day last year. An ABVP spokesperson said programmes will be organised in Kolkata, Siliguri and Darivit in North Dinajpur district, where the two had died in alleged police firing and in the colleges where ABVP has organisational strength. The International Mother Language Day is observed worldwide on February 21.