The Hindu : Karnataka News : Jagjivan Ram's birth anniversary a low-key affair

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 06, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

Jagjivan Ram's birth anniversary a low-key affair

By Our Special Correspondent

REMEMBERING A POLITICAL GIANT: People paying floral tributes Babu Jagjivan Ram at the leader's 98th birth anniversary celebrations in Bangalore on Tuesday. The Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, unveiled the portrait. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murt hy

BANGALORE, APRIL 5. The 98th birth anniversary celebrations of the former Deputy Prime Minister, Babu Jagjivan Ram, organised by the Social Welfare Department at the Vidhana Soudha, here on Tuesday was a low-key affair.

The programme held at the Banquet Hall of the Vidhana Soudha was brief as the Government is observing a three-day State mourning as a mark of respect to the dead Pope. The Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, the Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, K.H. Muniyappa, and other Ministers in the coalition Ministry in the State garlanded the portrait of Jagjivan Ram. There were no speeches and the programme ended in less than five minutes.

The department released a booklet on the life and contributions of Jagjivan Ram. In his foreword to the book, the Chief Minister has mentioned the contributions of Jagjivan Ram as a Minister at the Centre to the Green Revolution, which gave a boost to agricultural production in the late 1960s.

Jagjivan Ram, who was born on April 5, 1908 at Chadwa village of Bojpur district of Bihar, fought for the uplift of Dalits and minorities. Becoming a Minister at the Centre in the interim government headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Jagjivan Ram was a Minister in most of the Ministries till 1980 holding portfolios such as Defence, irrigation, agriculture and social welfare. Forming the Congress for Democracy in the last days of Emergency, he became the Deputy Prime Minister in the then Janata Government, headed by late Morarji Desai.

The Deputy Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, and the Social Welfare Minister, Y. Nagappa, also recalled the contribution of Jagjivan Ram to politics and nation building. The Minister for Water Resources and Transport, M. Mallikarjun Kharge, and the Minister for Higher Education, D. Manjunath, were present.

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