Gandhi’s Communication At Asutosh

The inauguration of the new session of the Bhavan's Asutosh College of Communication and Management coincided with the 2005 edition of the annual Sir Asutosh Memorial Memorial Oration on Monday, June 4 2005 at the Asutosh Memorial Hall. The grand evening session organised jointly by the Asutosh Mookerjee Memorial Institute and the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Kolkata Kendra saw the Governor of West Bengal, Gopalkrishna Gandhi deliver an oration on 'Gandhi In The Grip Of Violence'.

Referring to the facts that the 'Father of the Nation' was never comfortable with the title' 'Mahatma' and that the two most popular terms used to refer to Gandhi, 'Mahatma' and 'Father of the Nation' were given by two Bengalis, Rabindra Nath Tagore and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose respectively, the Governor cited several instances where Gandhi was involved in violence, both in South Africa and in India.

Stressing on Gandhi's belief that justice should come with clean hands, the Governor identified several contemporary issues, like arresting communal violence, dialogue with Pakistan, enforcement of women's rights, solution of ecological crisis, especially water resource management, fighting poverty, opposing commercialism and corruption, wherein Gandhi's involvement would have proved beneficial.

The Governor also drew a line between fasting and hunger strike as modes of agitation for prevalence of truth. According to his perceptions, fasting deals with changing the other party's mind and heart whereas, hunger strike seeks to obtain favourable decision.
Earlier, Mr. Gopalkrishna Gandhi paid homage to Asutosh Mookerjee by referring to him as having "Himalayan stature and Gangetic vigour".

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Kolkata chairman, Dr. Pratap Chandra Chunder in his presidential address, praised Sir Asutosh for converting the University of Calcutta from an examining university to a teaching university. On behalf of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Kolkata, he handed over a cheque to Governor Gandhi for the December 26, 2004 tsunami victims.

Among the other dignitaries gracing the occasion were Calcutta High Court Chief Justice, V.S. Shirpurkar; Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Director, K.V. Gopalkrishnan and Asutosh Memorial Institute President, Justice Chittatosh Mukherjee.The programme which started with a musical invocation from the Bhavan's School teachers and students ended with the rest on the dais and those in the gallery singing the National Anthem along with them.