Friday, December 24 2004 18:42 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: "It's absolutely wrong!" Veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu retorted when told about a report in a leading Bengali daily today (Dec 24, 2004) that he had received a written proposal from the Manmohan Singh Government for considering him for the highest civilian award, 'Bharat Ratna'.

He clarified that a deemed university in Rajasthan which was in existence since the time of the former President Dr Rajendra Prasad wished to award him the title of 'Bharat Gaurav'.

"They said that they wanted to award me the title on December 27 at a function in Kolkata which would be attended by Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh," an annoyed Basu said.

"I have told the university officials that I am personally not in favour of receiving a title. I have only told them that if they wished to felicitate me they could do so," Basu said.