Santiniketan, May 7
The replica of the Nobel medal of Rabindranath Tagore was handed over to the Vice-Chancellor of Viswa Bharati University by External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh during a special programme here today. Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and Swedish Ambassador Inga Eriksson Fogeh were also present.
The original Nobel medal and some other memorabilia were stolen from the museum at Viswa Bharati University on March 25 last year. Subsequently the Nobel Foundation was approached for a replacement.
The replica of the medal was handed over to the Indian Government by Sweden on December 8, 2004.
Asked about the delay in bringing the replica back to Santiniketan, Mr Mukherjee said, ‘’We wanted to hand over the medal before the poet’s birth anniversary on May 9.’’
A colourful programme was organised to mark this occasion, where most of the speakers termed the loss of the original medal as a ‘’national loss’’, but hailed the Swedish government for providing a replica to restore the pride of India.
— UNI
