Bihar CM, senior BJP officials honour former PM

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and senior State BJP leaders on Thursday paid tributes to former prime minister, the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on his 101st birth anniversary.

Kumar, along with his deputies Vijay Sinha and Samrat Choudhary, and State BJP president Sanjay Saraogi, paid floral tributes to a statue of Vajpayee at Patliputra Atal Park.

“We came here to bow before the poet, the nation-builder and the leader who gave the message to the nation on how it can stand strongly on its feet. We are working to materialise his resolve to make India the best among nations,” Choudhary said.

Later, addressing BJP MLAs and party workers at a conference-cum-exhibition on Vajpayee’s life at the state party headquarters, Sinha said, “Politics is often described as a ‘kajal is kothri’ (kohl-lined chamber). Anyone who enters it is bound to be stained. To emerge untainted from such a chamber is a rare achievement. Bharat Ratna awardee Atal ji stands among the foremost who managed to do so impressively.”

He said Vajpayee had no enemy, and enjoyed respect across the political spectrum.

“He was called ‘Ajatshatru’, one without enemies. He was respected by Opposition party members even though he was in the BJP,” Sinha said.

Sinha, Choudhary, Saraogi and other party leaders also garlanded a photograph of Vajpayee and witnessed the exhibition.

Sinha recalled the massive crowd that turned up during Vajpayee’s last rites in Delhi in 2018, saying that “this was his earning of the lifetime”.

He said Vajpayee “realised the dream of a corruption-free India”, made the country self-dependent and laid the foundations of a powerful nation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working to fully materialise Vajpayee’s dream of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, Sinha added.

Saraogi said Vajpayee was a determined and visionary leader who wanted the upliftment of the deprived sections of society.

He made India a nuclear nation, ensured distribution of food grains among the poor by introducing the Antyodaya card, interlinked the nation through the Golden Quadrilateral project and promoted rural economy by implementing the Grameen Sadak Yojana, he said.

“I hail from the land of Mithila. Vajpayee ji gave constitutional status to the Maithili language by enlisting it under the Eighth Schedule. Today, students not only in Bihar but also in the southern states, are taking UPSC exams in the Maithili language,” he said.

Prime Minister Modi is taking forward the ideas and works of Vajpayee, Saraogi said.

He said conferences on the ex-PM’s life will be held in every assembly constituency in the state over the coming week.