indica News Bureau-
On occasion of 95th birth anniversary of India’s former prime minister late Atal Bihari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to the legendary politician. On December 25, Wednesday, Modi unveiled a statue of Vajpayee at the Lok Bhawan in Lucknow.
“Tributes to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who is etched in the hearts of the countrymen, on his birth anniversary,” Modi wrote on Twitter.
The 25-ft bronze statue was built in Jaipur, by artist Rajkumar Pandit. The bronze statue weighs 5 tonnes and costs around Rs 89 lakh. The artist said that a team of 65 artists built the statue in six months. Pandit, who originally hails from Bihar, has his work station based in Jaipur where his team makes statues using metals like bronze, aluminum, brass among others.
The PM also laid the foundation stone for the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical University in the Uttar Pradesh capital for which the state government has allotted 50 acres of land.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee represented Lucknow in the parliament five times. Vajpayee was born in 1924 in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. He died on August 16, 2018 at AIIMS in New Delhi. Vajpayee remained a Member of Parliament for 47 years, elected 11 times to Lok Sabha, and twice to Rajya Sabha.
A prayer meeting was also organized on this occasion. BJP veteran LK Advani, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and members of Vajpayee’s family were amongst those who paid tributes to the BJP leader amid the playing of hymns and devotional music.
“They (the vandals) should ask themselves was it right. Whatever was torched, was it not of their child’s use? What has happened to those common people and policemen who got injured? They should introspect if what they did was right. People who damaged public property and were involved in violence in the name of protest in UP, should introspect if what they did was right,” said the prime minister.
[photo courtesy: twitter]
