Nitish Kumar and Amartya Sen at the seminar in Patna on Friday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, July 20: The founding fathers of Nalanda University have begun hardselling the project by opening the doors to countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, who will be the first chancellor of the university, and chief minister Nitish Kumar today used the platform provided by the external affairs ministry and Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) to project the institution as a “passage to Asean countries”.

India is striving for closer ties with the block of 10 nations — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam — with which its trade volume is around $80 billion annually. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Myanmar recently and ICCR is organising a series of cultural events with Asean countries.

“Nalanda University should be seen as a global university with a passage,” said Sen, pointing out that students of the university would be drawn from across the globe, including Asean countries.

The Nobel Prize-winning economist, who heads the governing board of Nalanda University, was delivering the keynote address of the ADRI Foundation Lecture. The event marked the inauguration of the three-day international seminar, “Civilization Dialogue Between India & ASEAN”, jointly organised by the ministry of external affairs, ICCR, the Bihar government and Nalanda University.

Sen said the ancient Nalanda University did not only teach Buddhism, but other subjects as well, such as medicine and public health care. Giving an account of his experience of living in Burma (now Myanmar) as a child, Sen stressed the need for India to learn from Asean countries the benefits of basic education. “Unfortunately basic education was missing during the first five year plan in India,” he said, pointing out that Asean countries had adapted the basic education model from Japan.

Nitish, during his speech, jokingly remarked that he was happy that ICCR had thought Bihar fit for opening its “19th regional centre” in the country in spite of the state having a rich cultural heritage. “But now that you have come, please build strong infrastructure here as the inflow from people from Asean countries will increase,” the chief minister said.

Nitish expressed happiness that the air of uncertainty hanging over Nalanda University had cleared and said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had himself taken the initiative to set up a monitoring committee headed by Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to hasten the work.

Former foreign minister of Singapore George Yeo, who has played an important role in the formation of Nalanda University, warned that Asean countries are driven by a common fear of being dominated by a larger partner. He pointed out that the block had adapted policies that were beneficial for both China and India. He said India would do well to expand and strengthen its age-old cultural and traditional relationship with Asean. “The Nalanda University is an important step towards this direction,” he stressed.

Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi was more candid about “marketing” of Nalanda University. Pointing to the world famous temples and monasteries located in Asean countries, Modi said previously two factors linked Bihar to these nations — Buddhism and Ramayana. “Now there is a third factor — Nalanda University,” he said and pointed to the need for increasing flights from these nations to Gaya, which has an international airport. He also said India should have a single visa system for citizens of Asian countries like the European Union. “We will benefit from it,” he stressed.

Even ICCR chairman Karan Singh described Nalanda University as a result of the age-old relationship between India and Asean countries. He said students from this region came to study in the ancient Nalanda University. He stressed the need to teach languages in the new university.

Among the other speakers were Bihar’s art and culture minister Sukhda Pandey, ICCR director-general Suresh K. Goel and secretary (east) in the external affairs ministry, Sanjay Singh. Economist Shaibal Gupta of ADRI delivered the vote of thanks.

About 22 international and eight Indian scholars are participating in the three-day event.