By IANS,
Kolkata : Apparently lauding the change of regime in West Bengal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday exuded confidence that Kolkata would regain its lost glory and emerge as “India’s window to Asia”.
Addressing the golden jubilee celebrations of the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta, the prime minister also called for revitalising the state’s economy, polity and society.
“Kolkata has been a great centre of learning and creativity in the past. It lost that position over several decades. However, I sincerely believe that a new sun is rising in our east and Kolkata can once again regain its glory as India’s window to Asia,” Singh said in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee here.
Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress-led alliance, that included Manmohan Singh’s Congress party, won the state assembly elections in April-May to end the 34-year rule of the Communist-headed Left Front.
Referring to poet Rabindranath Tagore as “one of the greatest Indians who rediscovered India’s Asian identity and Asia’s links with India”, Singh said the first Asian Nobel laureate was a proud son of Bengal and the country.
“The time has come to build on this great civilisational heritage and to pool all our wisdom, knowledge and experience to revitalise West Bengal’s economy, polity and society so as to scale new heights of human endeavour and achievement in the service of the people of West Bengal and India as a whole,” he said.