Chandigarh: Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government is committed to setting up a memorial for former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, Punjab unit BJP General Secretary Anil Sarin said here on Saturday.
The BJP has always been keen on giving due respect to national heroes like the great economist Dr Manmohan Singh, who heralded major economic reforms in the country, he told the media.
“The BJP has always risen above politics, and it has even conferred Bharat Ratna on Congress leaders Madan Mohan Malviya, P.V. Narasimha Rao and Pranab Mukherjee,” said Sarin.
He said the Central Cabinet has already decided to erect a national memorial in memory of Dr. Manmohan Singh at its meeting on December 27. He said the place for the memorial requires to be acquired, transferred, setting up of a trust and there are certain other paper works too involved.
“Once the ball is set rolling, the work shall be completed on memorial as soon as possible,” he clarified.
He said that despite Union Home Minister Amit Shah having conveyed the decision to erect a memorial to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, the grand old party “is wrongly propagating that the Modi government is not keen to erect a memorial. The Congress has never respected Dr Manmohan Singh and it’s a matter of shame that the Congress is playing petty politics over the death of its own stalwart leader”.
Sarin said that apart from Nehru and Gandhi’s family, Dr. Manmohan Singh was the only Prime Minister that has served the nation spanning 10 years in a row.
“All of us are well aware of the disgrace of late P.V. Narasimha Rao, who served the nation for five years as PM, suffered at the hands of his own party. Even the autobiography of Pranab Mukherjee mentions it,” he added.
Former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, who was also a noted economist, passed away at the AIIMS in Delhi on Thursday. He was 92.
Dr. Singh is credited with bringing reforms and transformational changes to the country’s economy when it was passing through a tough phase.
His demise has been condoled by leaders cutting across political lines, eminent personalities as well as global leaders.
(IANS)
