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It’s a shame India not celebrating Indira’s birth centenary: Chidambaram

It is a “shame” that the country and the government is not celebrating the 100th birth anniversary of former prime…

It’s a shame India not celebrating Indira’s birth centenary: Chidambaram

P Chidambaram (Photo: Facebook)

It is a “shame” that the country and the government is not celebrating the 100th birth anniversary of former prime minister Indira Gandhi, said senior Congress leader Palaniappan Chidambaram during a discussion titled ‘Remembering Indira Commemorating Her Centenary’ at the Tata Literature Live festival in Mumbai on Sunday.

The government of India did not celebrate her centenary. I do not know which state government celebrated her centenary,” Chidambaram said.

“The Congress party is doing it in its own way but the country is not celebrating Indira Gandhi’s centenary much like Russia seems to have forgotten the centenary of the Russian revolution,” he said.

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“Indira Gandhi, like any other prime minister, must be judged and assessed in the context in which she was PM and the challenges she faced as PM and what she did.” he said and

“I think she was extremely successful in some areas, she was not successful in others and she made a mistake which she acknowledged later that ‘Emergency was a mistake and I will never make it again’,” he said.

Indira Gandhi was born on this day in 1917 in Allahabad to Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala Nehru.

Former Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh and ex-United States Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith were also part of the discussion.

The Congress will continue to criticise Modi for not fulfilling the promises he made before coming to power, Chidambaram said, alleging that the prime minister has also “failed” to create job opportunities.

The former Union finance minister also alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had failed in his economic policies and was thus, trying to “play the friend of the poor”.

On Indira Gandhi’s 100th birth anniversary Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to share message he wrote, that I remember you “Dadi” (grandmother) and “you are mentor and guide”

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Varun Gandhi hailed his grandmother and former prime minister Indira Gandhi on her hundredth birth anniversary, and tweeted saying, that I “miss you Dadi”and you were  “a mother to this nation”.

On Indira Gandhi’s 100th birth anniversary, former chief of Janata Dal (United) party Sharad Yadav said in a tweet that, “although I was put in Jail when she was PM, yet liked & salute always her braveness & administrative capabilities”.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor could not participate in the floral tribute to Indira Gandhi on Sunday and conveyed his regret on Twitter saying, that “found myself housebound by the DelhiMarathon going down LodhiRoad! No traffic permitted, all are trapped.”

(with agency inputs)

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