Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had played a crucial role in getting Palestine recognition in the international community. Professor Harsh Dobhal of Doon University said this at a meet organised by the Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee to mark Indira Gandhi’s birth anniversary here on Thursday.
Addressing the gathering in the Congress Bhawan, Dobhal said that the president of the Palestinian National Authority Yasser Arafat used to consider Indira his sister. She also facilitated shelter to Bangladeshi citizens facing starvation at a time when India itself was struggling with the situation. He said, “It is under the 20-point programme initiated by Indira Gandhi that governments got work done for development of slum settlements as a result of which projects worth many crores of rupees are being implemented at present for development of slum settlements. In the 1950s, working as an assistant of her father and India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, she became the Information and Broadcasting minister in lal Bahadur Shastri’s union cabinet. She became the prime minister after Shastri’s unexpected demise and helped the nation secure its position in the international community,” said Dobhal.
Presiding over the function, the PCC president Kishore Upadhyay said that with her capabilities, Indira Gandhi secured a place for the nation in the global map. He said, “She had the strength to face the challenge posed by divisive and extremist forces. She worked to facilitate equal rights for all sections of society using a secular and democratic system. She wanted to establish India as a powerful and prosperous nation but some divisive powers snatched her away from the nation,” said Upadhyay. He further averred that the Congress had always worked for creating an atmosphere of mutual harmony while alleging that communal forces were trying to disturb the communal harmony.
Exhorting the gathering to face such forces staunchly, the PCC chief said that the real tribute to Indira Gandhi would be to follow the path she had shown to develop the country into a powerful and prosperous nation. Various party leaders including PCC vice presidents Jot Singh Bisht, Suryakant Dhasmana and chief spokesman Mathuradatt Joshi among others, also spoke on the occasion.
