Patna, Jan. 30: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today ruled out the possibility of delivering a lecture at Columbia University because of his workload.

“It is not possible for me visit Columbia University and deliver a lecture because there is plenty of work here. But I am very grateful to the university for inviting me,” said Nitish.

Columbia Business School under Columbia University had recently invited Nitish to deliver the keynote speech on “The urgency of inclusive growth and my vision for Bihar” at the school’s 7th India Business Conference on April 1.

The theme of the conference, which will be organised in New York, is “India: An Honest Conversation”.

The conference has been in the news as the school is also planning to make a case study on Bihar’s success story and leadership qualities of Nitish to teach the students the concept of inclusive growth and turnaround management.

Nitish said: “People are now talking about the state because of the changes in the past five years. The credit goes to the people for making the state so popular that foreign universities are inviting me to deliver lectures.”

He added: “I am just a symbol. The real work has been done by the people of Bihar and that is the reason so much is happening in the state. But there are many things, which are to be completed in the given time. The Assembly session is also about to start from next month and I am going to be very busy in the coming days. I don’t think that it would be possible to visit the varsity.”

The invitation from Columbia is not Nitish’s only invitation for a foreign trip this year. Chinese envoy Zhang Yan also invited Nitish to China, when he visited Patna recently.

However, Nitish is also not the only one to be invited to deliver lectures. RJD chief Lalu Prasad at the time he was the railway minister earned fame by delivering lectures at MIT, Harvard University, Wharton Business School and IIM-Ahmedabad.