MVP hosted who's who of Independent India

HUBLI: Mahila Vidya Peeta (MVP), one of the pioneers in women education in this part of the world, has a rare distinction of being visited by a host of prominent personalities of Independent India. Its impressive list of visitors in the past includes two former Presidents and four former Prime Ministers apart from a host of prominent personalities of modern India.
The sprawling premises of MVP on PB Road makes an interesting place given the galaxy of prominent personalities who visited it on various occasions. Prominent among them are former presidents Babu Rajendra Prasad and S Radhakrishnan, former vice-president B D Jatti, former PMs Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai and leaders Vinobha Bhave, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Khan Abdul Gaffur Khan, Jaya Prakash Narayan and Kamaraj Nadar. Chief ministers who visited MVP include S Nijalingappa, D Devaraj Urs, Veerendra Patil, Ramakrishna Hegde and J H Patel.
While some were invited to inaugurate the new facilities started by the institution which was founded by freedom fighter Sardar Veeranagouda Patil who is also credited with starting the first dalit girls' hostel in the country, others made it a point to visit the institution as part of their tour to this region and in view of their close association with Patil.
While Nehru inaugurated the Kasturba Balika Ashrama in 1951, Vinobha Bhave inaugurated the training college building in 1961 and Indira Gandhi laid the foundation stone for ladies' hostel in 1953. Names of these personalities have been entrenched on the respective buildings.
Seventy-five-year-old Amala Kadagad, daughter of Veeranagoua Patil said that that most of the political leaders made it a point to visit the institution whenever they came to the city.
She said Vinobha Bhave was their guest and was staying in the tiled-roof house located on MVP premises for three days during his Bhoodana Andolan. She also fondly remembers helping her mother Nagamma Patil in preparing jowar rotis for Morarji Desai.
As a mark of their visit, the institution has converted the house of Patil into a monument where the photographs of prominent personalities visit to the institution has been displayed.