Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Aug 22: Paying glowing tributes to former Prime Minister and a towering leader of the country, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Union Minister of State in the PMO with independent charge of North Eastern States, Dr Jitendra Singh today said that Vajpayee had rejected the autonomy resolution passed by J&K Assembly during the National Conference (NC) Government as he was of firm belief that J&K is an integral part of India like other States of the country.
The Union Minister was speaking at a tribute giving function to former Prime Minister at BJP Headquarters at Trikuta Nagar here this afternoon whose ashes were brought from New Delhi here to be imm-ersed in river Tawi in the evening.
All the senior BJP leaders including Party State president, Ravinder Riana and former ministers were present at BJP Headquarters and they later accompanied the Asthi Kalash of late leader to Harki Puri where it was immersed in river Tawi with full reverence and chanting of Vedic hymns.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that Vajpayee was never for any compromise on J&K and this was the reason that he rejected the Autonomy resolution of NC passed in State Assembly.
Taking a dig at NC leaders who oft repeatedly say that BJP should follow Vajpayee’s policy, he said the NC leaders should be reminded that according to Vajpayee policy there is no place for autonomy.
Dr Jitendra Singh said when autonomy resolution was rejected by Vajpayee, the NC was part of NDA Government at Centre at that time and neither the then Chief Minster of the State nor the then Union Minister from NC in NDA protested against the Vajpayee’s decision but the duo accepted it quietly. Both of them continued in the NDA after that also so there is no logic in making a hue and cry over autonomy now, he added.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that when former president of Jana Sangh, Dr Shyamaprasad Mookerjee entered J&K via Lakhanpur and Atal Ji was accompanying him, Mookerjee told Vajpayee “go and tell entire world that Mookherjee entered J&K without permit”. “Vajpayee left and conveyed the entire nation that Dr Mookherjee entered the J&K without permit”, Dr Jitendra added.
The Union Minister said that Vajpayee always advocated for total integration of J&K with rest of country and it was during his speech in Parliament in 1964 that he vehemently opposed nomenclature of Prime Minister for Chief Minister in J&K and then made a fervent appeal to then Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru to end this anomaly. This forced Nehru to change the nomenclature of Prime Minister to Chief Minister next year, he added.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that Vajpayee who was firm in his ideologies carried bus to Lahore for promotion of peace in the Sub Continent but during Kargil war he did not hesitate in giving a call for Aar Paar Ki Ladai and gave free hand to forces. Likewise through the explosion of Pokhran, he wanted to give a message to Pakistan and other world that though India does not believe in use of nuclear bomb but at the same time it can’t make any compromise with national security.
He said Vajpayee Ji was the real example in public life as he lived without hypocrisy and he was acceptable to all because of his high level of integrity, honesty and probity in public life.
Dr Jitendra Singh said during our student days the people who did not subscribe to Vajpayee’s and BJP’s ideology and had left leaning would attend his public rallies to listen his speech.
Earlier BJP State president, Ravinder Raina brought the “Asthi Kalash” from party Office, New Delhi to Jammu Airport, where hundreds of party activists were eagerly waiting to get the sight of “Asthi Kalash” of a “Yug Purush”, proceeded in the form of a huge rally towards the BJP headquarters, Trikuta Nagar.
At BJP Headquarters, Union MoS in PMO, Dr. Jitendra Singh, MP (Lok Sabha) Jugal Kishore Sharma, MP (Rajya Sabha) Shamsher Singh Manhas, former Ministers Chander Prakash Ganga, Sham Choudhary, Sukhnandan Choudhary, Bali Bhagat, Ajay Nanda, Priya Sethi and other senior leaders paid tributes to this great leader.
Ravinder Raina, in his epigrammatic words, sketched life portrait of Vajpayee and said that he was always loved by all, beyond the party fold and with persons from every ideology. He said, Vajpayee was the one who pioneered ethics and moral values in politics.
Jugal Kishore Sharma, said that Vajpayee will always be missed and his memories will remain alive in the soul of “Bharat”. He said that Vajpayee was a great visionary, great poet, statesman, mentor of millions. Leader of masses, man of words who always stood by the side of ground level activists, he added.
BJP State general secretary, Dr. Narinder Singh managed the whole programme.
After the tribute programme at Party Headquarter, all the party leaders carried the “Asthi Kalash” to “Surya Putra Tawi” in the form a rally, where the “Ashes” of the great public leader were immersed in the waters of sacred river, with the chanting of Vedic Hymns.
Parmod Kapahi, Harinder Gupta, Girdhari Lal Raina, Surinder Ambardar, Ramesh Arora, Sanjay Baru, Ajay Pargal, Chandra Mohan Gupta, Rashpaul Verma, Surinder Choudhary, Tilak Raj Gupta, Arvind Gupta, Kulbhushan Mohtra, Jaidev Rajwal, Rajni Sethi, Dr. Pardeep Mahotra, Sanjay Khanna, Jaideep Sharma, Ayodhya Gupta, Jangbir Singh, Subhash Jandial, Karan Sharma were among the prominent BJP leaders who paid tributes to Vajpayee.
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