Young party workers should understand the sacrifice and hard work done by the founding members and leaders of the party like Devendra Shastri, said the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat while addressing a programme organised to mark the sixth death anniversary of Devendra Shastri at State party office on Tuesday.
In his speech the CM paid glowing tributes to the Jansangh and BJP leader who had worked as pracharak in Shekhupura of Undivided Punjab during pre independence era and fondly remembered his association with him. He said that the Shastri ji was so down to earth and active that he used to go Bijnore from Dehradun on Bicycle. The CM said that BJP is now the largest party of the world and the role played by the leaders like Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Sunder Singh Bhandari is of paramount importance in taking the party to the position it is in today. He said that personalities of Shastri ji and Soban Singh Jeena who used to pay for his tea in his own office while being a Minister should be followed by the party workers.
The State BJP President Ajay Bhatt said that Shastri ji was the organiser of the historic Dhol Damau demonstration at New Delhi for a separate state of Uttarakhand in which senior Party leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and lal Krishna Advani had participated. Exhorting the party workers to follow the example of hard work and discipline set up by leaders like Devendra Shastri, Bhatt said that now workers aspect position in government and party shortly after joining the party. He however added that the BJP workers are still much more disciplined than the workers of other parties. Appreciating the state government Bhatt said that the state has become the first state to end prevalent compulsion corruption in police by creating a corpus of `3 Crores.
Rishiraj Dabral, the son of Devendra Shastri elaborated the works and personality of his father. The office bearers of Vishva Samvad Kendra and large number of BJP leaders and workers attended the programme.