Union Minister D Purandeswari has received a surprise letter from US First Lady Laura Bush inviting her as a featured speaker at the White House symposium on Advancing Global Literacy Building a Foundation for Freedom in New York on September 22.
D Purandeswari is the daughter of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister NT Rama Rao.
Laura Bush wanted Congress President Sonia Gandhi to preside over a symposium, but the latter did not accept the invitation. Therefore, the second choice was to invite D Purandeswari.
Now that the file is with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, hopefully D Purandeswari's visit will be cleared in a day or two. Purandeswari is also likely
to take a message for the conference from Sonia Gandhi.
The symposium takes place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting and will be held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The purpose of the symposium is to encourage sustained global and country-level leadership in the promotion of literacy. It will highlight advances made in literacy and its power to enhance the quality of life worldwide.
D Purandeswari, Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development, has been asked to speak about literacy initiatives undertaken since the UNESCO regional literacy meet held in New Delhi in 2006 and the progress and the effect they have had in India.
