Early Times Report JAMMU, Oct 2: Congress celebrated the birth anniversary of father of nation Mahatma Gandhi alongwith Former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri at PCC HQ Rajiv Bhawan Jammu. Working President Shri Raman Bhalla Presided over the function while senior leaders and activists attended in large numbers. Prominent amongst them included Former ministers Mula Ram ,Yogesh Sawhney, District President Jammu Urban, GM Saroori, Chief Spokesperson Ravinder Sharma, Ex Legislators Th Balbir Singh, Indu Pawar, Naresh Gupta, Senior leaders Manmohan Singh, Vinod Sharma, Kanta Bhan, Shashi Sharma, Suresh Dogra, Satish Sharma, Amrit Bali, Ex Corporators Dwarka Choudhary, Mohd. Iqbal Dar, Prof Ashok Bhagat, Seva Dal Chief Vijay Sharma, Sanjeev Panda, Neeraj Gupta, Kapil Singh, Rajiv Saraf, Adv Bhavishya Sudan, Adv Gagandeep Singh, Sohit Sharma , Mangal Bral , Pritam Singh. Varinder Manhas , Rajvir Singh, Vijayant Pathania, Latish Sharma, Prem Lal Sharma, Kewal Kishan Jogi, Sanjeev Dogra, Suman Wazir, Pardeep Bhalla, Rakesh Sharma, Gurmeet Singh, Ram Mangotra,Shallu Dutta, Ashu Mehra, Neelam Lata, Harsh Kour, Sanjeev Vaid, Sushil Kumar, Anuradha Sharma, Monika Bhat, Manmeet Kour and others. Rich tributes were paid to the father of nation on the occasion, recalling his. great contributions to the freedom of the country. Addressing the gathering, Raman Bhalla remembered the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi who united the diverse nation under one umbrella of Indian National Congress to fight the mighty British Raj on the principle of Ahimsa (Nonviolence) and truth. He gave the strongest weapon of Satyagrah to fight the mighty power and adopted the path of non violence to defeat the designs of the mighty ruler and to achieve the goal of freedom. His companions and followers like Jawahar Lal, Sardar Patel, Moulana Azad, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Netaji Subash Chander Boase, Dr Rajinder Prashad and the other stalwarts stood against the divisive designs and opportunist forces , to keep the country united with multiple diversities and finally succeeded in the mission but certain divisive and opportunists played into the hands of Britishers and divided the country on communal and religious lines. Bhalla said that those communal and opportunist forces are still trying to create wedge between Hindus and Muslims in order to stay in power and weakening the delicate secular fabric of this nation which is weakness and strengthen both. Congress and other like minded secular forces have to guard the interests of the country and keep it united at all costs and defeat the designs of communal and divisive forces who are posing threat to the very existence and unity of this country for their power politics. He cautioned the party workers about the threat to secularism and unity by the opportunist politics of BJP-RSS. Several others paid floral tributes and took pledge to follow the philosophy and principles of Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri, remembering his popular slogan of Jai Jawan Jai Kissan, which gave new strength to our nation and defeated Pakistan in 1965. |