The students of Department of Hindi, Panjab University, along with the Chairperson Dr.Gurmeet Singh, today met Smt. Sushma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs, Govt. of India(GOI), at Jawahar Bhawan, New Delhi. The meeting marked a special moment for students as they presented a nearly 50 year old rare photograph of Smt. Sushma Swaraj from her student days at Panjab University when she participated and won the K.K. Grover and A.C.Bali Declamation Competition, an annual feature of the University.
Smt. Sushma Swaraj felt nostalgic looking at the pictures and said that the photographs seemed to have created a visual of the yesteryears and her days at Panjab University. Delighted to meet the delegation of young students she wished them best for their future endeavours.
Dr. Gurmeet Singh, Chairperson, Dept. of Hindi said that, “students found many old and rare photographs during the recent cleaning drive at the Department Library. Smt. Swaraj’s photograph was also found during this exercise and the Department decided to restore it, get it framed and present it to her. The Department then got in touch with the office of the minister and thus got an opportunity to personally meet her and present the picture to her.” He also thanked the honourable minister, Smt. Swaraj for taking out time from her busy schedule.
The students who were a part of the delegation included Kewal Kumar, Shakuntala , Ram Singh Yadav ( research scholars) , Jyotsana And Ankita ( MA students) .Not only a first for the Department, the meeting also made for a cherishable and memorable moment for the students who felt honoured at the opportunity to meet and interact with the minister. Chairperson, Dr. Singh also shared that amongst the many photographs found during the cleaning of the Department Libraray were also pictures of veterans like Shri Indra Nath Madan. Dr.Singh informed that the Department would initiate a process of restoring these photographs and digitizing them to be able to preserve them and make a short presentation of same.
