Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, while addressing an event of inauguration of the new campus of Nalanda University in Bihar's Rajgir on Wednesday, praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying "I'm happy that you came here." The CM and the PM exchanged laughter when Nitish recalled his statement about PM Modi's third electoral victory. "Aap tisari bar aa rahe hain isme shak thore na tha...(There was no doubt that you would come to power for the third time)," After listening to Nitish's statement, PM Modi bursted into laughter.
"I welcome Prime Minister Modi, I congratulate and thank him. When I got to know that you were coming here, I was very happy," he added.
PM Modi came to Rajgir for the first time and visited the ruins of Nalanda University (UN Heritage site), the CM said.
"I'm happy, people are coming here. Earlier also people used to come here. The District Magistrate is here. I told him to keep visiting the University and the state government will provide all support," he added.
The ancient University was home to 10,000 students and hundreds of teachers used to teach them, Nitish said, adding students from several countries used to come here for the study.
Unfortunately, it was destroyed by the invaders, the CM said.
"Villagers from spanning 20-25 km were connected to the University. It got recognition as the centre of knowledge," he added.
The first time, then President APJ Abdul Kalam conceptualised the resurrection of an International Nalanda University in 2006, Nitish recalled, adding Kalam again visited Bihar to address the state assembly in 2008 and inspected our work in Nalanda.
Later, we pressured then Centre government to pass a bill in the Lok Sabha in 2010 to establish an International University here, he reminisced.
Also read: 'Nalanda University will reintroduce soft power of India', says PM Modi in Rajgir
