CHENNAI : Leaders from various parties, including Kanimozhi, daughter of the late DMK president, Karunannidhi, and D Jayakumar, Fisheries Minister, and others paid tributes to former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee at a commemorative function held here by the State BJP on Tuesday evening.Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, said, “Why do we say he is a great leader? Because he inspired three generations of people and politicians during the days of Jan Sangh, Janata Party and BJP. He guided the BJP when the party had only two MPs and took the party to power.”
In order to connect the entire nation, Vajpayee implemented the golden quadrilateral project and brought down the mobile phone call rates, Prakash Javadekar said.Union Minister Pon Radha Krishnan said, “The former PM made APJ Abdul Kalam President for his service to the country and he made the nation proud with the Pokhran nuclear test.” With love for Tamil and Tamils, Vajpayee brought many schemes for the welfare of Tamil Nadu, the minister added.
Kanimozhi, secretary of the women’s wing of the DMK, said, “I would like to share my sadness with BJP leaders and cadre over the loss of Vajpayee. It was the same sadness that DMK care felt for the death of our leader Karunanidhi.”Referring to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme, she said that the former PM offered education to very ordinary people by implementing the scheme by which around 60 per cent of drop-out rate had decreased in schools.
Though he had not been in active politics for the last 10 years, lakhs of people paid tributes to the departed leader as he was living in their hearts.“Like our departed leader Anna, Vajpayee saw the god in the smile of the poor. Though he did not know Tamil, he loved the Tamil poems as he had a poetic mind. He protected the political unity despite the differences of opinion,” she commented.
Minister Jayakumar said Vajpayee had love for public work, which was reflected when he came to Chennai from Nellur by car to check the quality of the golden quadrilateral project. And he made our country proud by executing the Pokhran nuclear test, Jayakumar added.
GK Mani, PMK president, Thol Thirumavalavan, VCK president, Mallai Sathya of the MDMK, Thamodharan of Congress, B. S. Gnanadesikan of Tamil Manila Congress( Moopanar), K Krishnaswami of Puthiya Thamilagam, P Sampath of CPM, TR Parivendhar of IJK, K.A.M. Muhammad Abubacker of IUML and many others took part in the function.Earlier, all leaders paid floral tributes to the portrait of the departed leader.Tamilisai Soundararajan, State BJP president, welcomed the gathering and LG Ganesan, a senior leader of the BJP proposed a vote of thanks.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
Referring to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan scheme, Kanimozhi said that the former PM offered education to very ordinary people through the scheme by which around 60 per cent of drop-out rate had decreased in schools. Though he had not been in active politics for last 10 years, lakhs of people paid tributes to the departed leader, she said.