Legendary athlete PT Usha, film composer Ilaiyaraaja, film maker V Vijayendra Prasad, and philanthropist Veerendra Heggade are four eminent personalities nominated to the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued congratulatory messages to all the nominated members calling them an inspiration for every Indian. Twelve members are nominated by the President to the Rajya Sabha for a term of six years. These nominees, selected on the advice of the Prime Minister, are people who have made significant achievements in the fields of arts, literature, science etc.
“The remarkable PT Usha Ji is an inspiration for every Indian. Her accomplishments in sports are widely known, but equally commendable is her work to mentor budding athletes over the last several years. Congratulations to her on being nominated to the Rajya Sabha,” Modi wrote on Twitter.
PT Usha lost a historic bronze medal in 400m hurdles at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Popularly known as Payyoli Express, she established herself as the queen of Asian track and field by winning sex medals — five gold and a bronze — at Jakarta in Indonesia a year later during the 1985 Asian championships. She was also awarded the Padma Shri in the same year she starred at the Asian Championships.
Following her athletics career, Usha remained away from the public eye running her sports academy, Usha School of Athletics in Balussery, Kerala. She is married to Kabbadi player V Sreenivasan.
For Ilaiyaraaja, who hails from Tamil Nadu, the PM said his creative genius has enthralled people across generations. “His works beautifully reflect many emotions. What is equally inspiring is his life journey: he rose from a humble background and achieved so much. Glad that he has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha,” Modi wrote in another tweet.
The PM also shared photos from his archives with the newly nominated members on the microblogging site.
Filmmaker Vijayendra from Andhra Pradesh is credited of having scripted the movie Bahubali and is a household name in southern Indian States.
Heggade is a spiritual activist from Karnataka and the PM shared a photo with him during his visit at Dharmashta Temple, While congratulating him, Modi recalled Heggade’s “good work in health, education and culture. “He will certainly enrich Parliamentary proceedings,” Modi said in his tweet.
