President lauds Kalakshetra founder

President Pranab Mukherjee today paid rich tributes to Rukmini Devi Arundale, founder of the city-based Kalakshetra - a centre for performing arts, saying she represented the "spirit of renunciation" and sacrifice inculcated by the Indian value system.
Mukherjee was referring to Arundale rejecting the offer to be made the President by then Prime Minister Morarji Desai in 1977, recalling that her name was a widely appreciated one in the political circles then.
Delivering the inaugural Rukmini Devi Memorial Lecture at Kalakshetra, he said had Arundale accepted the offer, she would have been "easily elected".
Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy was subsequently elected to the top post, Mukherjee said detailing about the incident which was earlier mentioned by former West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, Chairman of Kalakshetra Foundation.

Mukherjee recalled that Mahatma Gandhi did not accept any office in post-independent India despite being the "architect of the liberation struggle" and attributed this to the "spirit of renunciation abundantly available in the value system of our country."
"Rukmini Devi also represented this...Her refusal (to become President) speaks of her sagacity. (These are) values India has inculcated - that of sacrifice and renunciation," Mukherjee noted.