New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and a host of Parliamentarians
on Tuesday offered floral tributes at the statue of Babu Jagjivan
Ram on his 104th birth anniversary.
Several union ministers, MPs, Secretaries-General of Lok
Sabha and Rajya Sabha, T K Viswanathan and V K Agnihotri,
respectively, were also present at a brief function at
Parliament House this morning.
A booklet containing the profile of Babu Jagjivan Ram,
brought out by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, was presented to the
dignitaries who attended the function.
The statue of Babu Jagjivan Ram was unveiled by the then
President Shanker Dayal Sharma in Parliament House in August
1995.
Earlier Vice President Hamid Ansari, the Lok Sabha
Speaker, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment
Mukul Wasnik and several members of Parliament paid floral
tributes at Ram`s memorial at `Samta Sthal` on the banks of
Yamuna.
UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi attended a prayer meeting on
the occasion.
A freedom fighter and a social reformer, Ram served as
minister in the Union Government for a number of years and was
the Defence Minister during the India-Pakistan war of 1971.
He quit the Congress in 1977 and was Deputy Prime Minister
in the Janata Party government headed by Morarji Desai.
PTI
