West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday paid floral tributes at the statue of Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore in Gordon Square. She gifted Kalighat pat paintings from Bengal to Tagore Centre in UK. Later, she paid floral tributes at the statue of Gandhi ji in Parliament Square.
The West Bengal Chief Minister also paid homage to APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India, who had passed away on Monday.
The West Bengal Chief Minister informed that she has asked the Indian High Commissioner in UK, to inquire whether the Bengal Government could buy the house and conserve it. “The State Government is keen to buy the house where Tagore lived. Tagore is our pride. It is a private property and therefore I have asked our high commissioner to see if we can strike a deal,” the Chief Minister told.
Tagore had visited London in 1912 and spent time at 3 Vale of Heath, Hampstead, where he is believed to have written and translated to English the Nobel Prize-winning `Geetanjali’.
A blue plaque over the door put in 1961 already commemorates the house and reads “The Indian Poet stayed here in 1912“.
The Chief Minister has also asked the Indian High Commissioner to trace out a house in London belonging to Sister Nivedita.
She said that on the eve of her UK visit, the secretary Maharaj of the Belur Math requested her to see whether the house where Sister Nivedita lived could be designated with a blue plaque. By showing us the buildings where famous people have lived and worked, blue plaques celebrate the architecture of London’s streets and the diversity and achievements of its past residents. London’s blue plaques scheme, founded in 1866, is believed to be the oldest of its kind in the world.
“I have asked the Indian High Commissioner whether he could speak with the mayor of London and install a blue plaque on Sister Nivedita’s house,“ the West Bengal Chief Minister said.
Images taken from Twitter