Hyderabad, August 20: Paying rich tributes to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 76th birth anniversary on Thursday, former minister and ex-Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir said that it was Rajiv Gandhi’s vision that turned India into a powerful nation.
Addressing a meeting at Gandhi Bhavan, Shabbir Ali said that Rajiv Gandhi introduced a new education policy in 1986 with an aim to inculcate the scientific temper and boost technology-based education in the country. He said the policy was so comprehensive and inclusive that it completely changed the mindset of all Indians and they started adapting technology and innovation in all spheres of their lives. Right from computerisation to telecommunication, Rajiv Gandhi motivated everyone in the country to adopt non-conventional methods to achieve growth. He said it was because of initiatives taken by Rajiv Gandhi that today India gets counted in the list of powerful nations.
Similarly, Shabbir Ali said that Rajiv Gandhi implemented a foreign policy which provided India an edge over all neighbouring countries and our nation was able to maintain cordial relations with everyone. He said that Rajiv Gandhi played a major role in resolving the civil war in Sri Lanka and even dispatched Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) when the situation deteriorated. However, this move became a basis for his assassination at the hands of LTTE. Therefore, Rajiv Gandhi gave the supreme sacrifice for the integrity of the nation.
Shabbir Ali slammed the BJP Government at the Centre and alleged that Prime Minister Narender Modi and his team were trying to dilute the education policy with a hidden agenda of saffronisation. He also alleged that the Modi Government was trying to distort the history by giving prominence to RSS founders like K.B. Hegdewar, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and others who played no role in the freedom struggle. BJP is also trying to undermine the role played by Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and others who fought for the country’s freedom. He said RSS and BJP want to re-write the history book to pollute the young generation with the poison of communalism.
He said it was highly unfortunate that the Central Government did not publish an advertisement in any newspaper in the country in honour of a former Prime Minister who sacrificed his life for the country.
The Congress leader said that the contribution of Gandhi-Nehru family in nation-building was enormous and BJP and RSS would fail in their attempts to distort real history. He said that the Congress party would continue to highlight the achievements of Pandit Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and other leaders who transformed India into a powerful country.
Shabbir Ali also accused the BJP Government of adopting an erroneous foreign policy which almost severed India’s ties with other nations, including all neighbouring countries. Today India is not having friendly relations with any of its neighbours including China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Nepal and Bhutan. He said even small nations like Nepal and Bhutan were daring to adopt anti-India policies. He said India has played the major role in the liberation of Bangladesh and thousands of Indian soldiers have laid down their lives to beat Pakistan. However, today Bangladesh is more inclined towards China, than sailing with India. These developments show that foreign policy of the Modi Government was going against the interest of India, he said.
The meeting, presided by TPCC General Secretary SK Afzaluddin, was also attended by TPCC Treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy, TPCC General Secretary Prem Lal, former Corporator Wajid Hussain, Nampally Incharge Feroz Khan, Hyderabad City Congress Vice President Osman Khan and other leaders.
