The decades-old dream of Tirupati came true, with Parliament giving its nod to enhance the status of Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha (RSVP), Tirupati, into a central university.
The Bill to amend the deemed-to-be university into National Sanskrit University (NSU) was passed in Parliament, sending joy among all the stakeholders at the university.
Established in 1961 as an autonomous institution Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, with the Vice-President of India S. Radhakrishnan laying the stone, it was declared a deemed university in 1987, inaugurated by the then President R. Venkatraman.
Key role
Former Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami immediately after taking over as the Vidyapeetha’s Chancellor set the process in motion early in the year. The recent visit of Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal to the campus gave the much-needed impetus to the process. Similarly, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also had an inconspicuous role in getting the Bill passed.
The upgrade will help the university to grant affiliation to Sanskrit colleges and open study centres across the region to reach out to students interested in learning Sanskrit. With copious flow of funds expected in the days to come, the university can expand the horizons of its research and unravel the science hidden in the Sanskrit scriptures, a task that the Vidyapeetha is already doing exceedingly well.
Centre thanked
Jubilation was palpable on the campus as the news broke. At a meeting held with teaching and non-teaching staff here on Friday, Vice-Chancellor V. Muralidhara Sharma thanked the Centre for the widely-anticipated step. He said the staff would have to work hard to stand up to the government’s expectations.
Registrar G.S.R. Krishnamurthy, former Vice-Chancellor M.L.N. Murthy, Academic Dean Rani Sadasiva Murty, varsity’s standing counsel K. Ajay Kumar and others took part.
