There has been "no decision" to exclude Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s name on the UNESCO plaque at Santiniketan, the government informed Parliament on Thursday.

The text of the plaque has been finalised as prescribed in UNESCO Operational Guidelines, 2023, Union Minister for Culture and Tourism G Kishan Reddy said in response to a query in Rajya Sabha.

Reddy was responding to a question on the reasons behind not including “the name of Rabindranath Tagore on the UNESCO plaque in Santiniketan", the criteria used to determine the names included on the plaque, and whether there are plans to revisit the decision.

In his response, the minister said, "There is no decision to exclude the name of Rabindranath Tagore on the UNESCO Plaque in Santiniketan".

"Moreover, the text of the plaque has been finalised as prescribed in UNESCO Operational Guidelines, 2023, which includes the name of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and is aligned with his significant contribution in establishment of Santiniketan," he added.

Santiniketan, where Rabindranath Tagore built Visva-Bharati over a century ago, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List this September.

India had been striving for a long time to get a UNESCO tag for the site located in Birbhum district.

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