Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and a host of Parliamentarians on Tuesday offered floral tributes at the statue of Babu Jagjivan Ram on his 104th birth anniversary.
Several union ministers, MPs, Secretaries-General of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, T K Viswanathan and V K Agnihotri, respectively, were also present at a brief function at Parliament House on Tuesday morning.
A booklet containing the profile of Babu Jagjivan Ram, brought out by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, was presented to the dignitaries who attended the function.
The statue of Babu Jagjivan Ram was unveiled by the then President Shanker Dayal Sharma in Parliament House in August 1995.
Earlier Vice President Hamid Ansari, the Lok Sabha Speaker, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Mukul Wasnik and several members of Parliament paid floral tributes at Ram’s memorial at ‘Samta Sthal’ on the banks of Yamuna.UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi attended a prayer meeting on the occasion.A freedom fighter and a social reformer, Ram served as minister in the Union Government for a number of years and was the Defence Minister during the India-Pakistan war of 1971.
He quit the Congress in 1977 and was Deputy Prime Minister in the Janata Party government headed by Morarji Desai.