The Hindu : National : Czech President Klaus honoured

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Thursday, Nov 10, 2005

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Czech President Klaus honoured

Special Correspondent

Viswa Bharati University confers on him the Deshikottama award

PHOTO: PTI

WITH LOVE: Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus shows a gift presented to him during his visit to the Kali temple in south Kolkata on Wednesday.

KOLKATA: The Viswa Bharati University conferred the Deshikottama award on Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus for his contributions to economic studies at a special convocation held on the university campus in Santiniketan on Wednesday. He is the 133rd recipient of the award that is the equivalent of an honorary D. Litt. The Vice-Chancellor, Sujit Kumar Basu, handed over the award to Dr. Klaus.

Exchange programmes

Dr. Klaus assured Dr. Basu that on his return to his country he would explore ways to facilitate exchange programmes between Viswa Bharati and various universities in the Czech Republic, the Vice-Chancellor later told The Hindu over telephone. "We expressed to Dr. Klaus our particular interest in academic exchanges in the mathematical sciences."

34th foreigner to receive the award

Dr. Klaus is the sixth Head of State and the 34th foreigner to receive Deshikottama.The Czech President, accompanied by his wife, arrived at Santiniketan from Kolkata in the morning.He visited an exhibition of photographs of Rabindranath Tagore taken during his visits to Czechoslovakia in 1921 and 1926. Letters written by Tagore to Czech academicians expressing his concern over the events overtaking Europe — the rise of Nazism in Germany — were also part of the exhibition.

Dr. Klaus was a professor at the 650-year-old Charles University in Prague that Tagore had visited during one of his stays in the city, according to Dr. Basu.

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