Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 27: BJP State Freedom Fighter & Martyrs Cell today remembered Maharani Ahilya Bai Holkar on her 292nd birthday and in this connection a function was held here at BJP State Office, Trikuta Nagar .
The function started with garlanding the portrait of Maharani and paying tributes to her by the chief guest Choudhary Lal Singh along with State Cell convenor Bharat Bhushan Sharma and other important leaders of the party.
Choudhary Lal Singh threw light on the works of Maharani and terming her as the true representative of the Indian women, he said that the women of India were never weak and neglected, but continued oppression of the fair sex during a long time of infighting and invasions by the foreigners resulted into the ill situation.
He said present BJP regime under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to bring India to its past pristine glory and thus the Modi Government has started many schemes for the ladies like “Beti Bachao, Beti Padho”, “women, helpline”, “Ujjawala”, “Maternity Benefit Programme” and so on. “Women folk must make Devi Ahilya a role model for themselves”, he added.
Advocate B S Jamwal while portraying life of Devi Ahilya in front of all, said that she was born in Jamkhed, Maharashtra and was the Holkar Queen of Maratha ruled Malwa kingdom. She was crowned as queen after the death of her husband as well as father in law. She tried to protect her kingdom from plundering Muslim invaders for which she personally led armies into battle and fought with great valour and pride. She was a great builder and patron of many Hindu temples and dharamshallas at sacred sites even outside her kingdom, at many prominent religious places. Seeing the destroyed and desecrated temple in Somnath, Rani Ahilyabai built a temple where Lord Shiva is still worshipped by Hindus.
Later floral tributes were paid on the portrait of Maharani by all participants. Bharat Bhushan Sharma proposed vote of thanks. Rajinder Sharma, Jai Dev Rajwal, Varinder Jit Singh, Suresh Sharma, Jagbir Singh Pal, Dr. Pardeep Mahotra, Kulwant Singh, Rajinder Sadhotra, Bhagwan Singh, Jaram Singh, Prakash Singh, Pawan Bakshi, Amar Pal, Deepak Pandey, Surender Singh, Neha Dogra, Supriya Pandita, Imran Bandey, Hardeep Singh and others were among prominent persons present.