Nirmala’s proud Tiruchy teachers call her a ‘jewel’

Nirmala had pursued BA Economics at SRC from 1977 to 1980. The professors, who recalled her student days here, said the BJP minister excelled in studies and extra-curricular activities. “She is one of the distinguished students of our institution and was very good at debates, discussions and quiz competitions. She became the winner of nationallevel quiz competition organised by the Regional Engineering College (presently National Institute of Technology), Tiruchy, and also brought many laurels to our college during her graduation,” Dr R Padmavathi, Principal of SRC, told DTNext.

The bright economics student was an ardent speaker and was much associated with the Department of English, which often organised debates and discussions on various subjects.

According to Usha Chandra Sekar, who retired as the Head of the English department of the college three years ago, Nirmala was very impressive, disciplined and determined to succeed on the topic she chose.

Usha Chandra Sekar, while remembering that Nirmala used to read a lot right from her graduation days, remarked that her former department had also played a part in unravelling the leader in her.

College Principal Padmavathi recalled that Nirmala had visited the college twice in the last few years. “The first meeting was on March 5, 2012, when she was the BJP spokesperson and participated in the annual day function. The next meeting was on February 20, 2016 when she was the Minister of State for Commerce and Industries. She praised the college and reminisced her good old days there while speaking at the annual day function then,” recalled Padmavathi. Acclaiming Nirmala as the jewel of their college, Padmavathi said that the college is proud of their distinguished daughter.