Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday warned of the enticements of crass consumerism and of the threat to the social ethos being posed by the forces of globalisation sweeping across the world.

"At a time when the world is becoming a global village we need to be on guard to ensure that the forces of globalisation do not uproot us from our tradition and our values that call for the all-round development of man," Mr. Bhattacharjee said on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Calcutta University here.

The Chief Minister also regretted that disparities between different sections continued to exist despite advances in science and technology. "The gap between the rich and the poor, between the North and the South keeps widening." There was need for universities to take up research for further development in both the agricultural and industrial sectors — the benefits of which could be shared with the common man.

Calcutta University, with which eminent personalities such as Ashutosh Mukhopadhyay and Sir Gurudas Bandhopadhyay were associated, should live up to its high standards of being one of the premier centres of learning in the country, he said.

The onslaught on the value system, particularly of the younger generation, of growing consumerism and of a technology which was inattentive to environmental concerns was resulting in both moral and environmental degradation. "Our anxiety is which way are we heading and what lies ahead," Mr. Bhattacharjee said.

Ancient Indian philosophy upheld the values of serving others and the need for all-round development of the individual. "I am an atheist, not a monk and I think that India's ancient philosophy is becoming increasingly relevant in these times in order for mankind to survive."

West Bengal Governor and Chancellor Gopalkrishna Gandhi urged the university authorities to aim at knowledge sharing and dissemination so that the research being done in the university could be useful to other institutions.

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