Bharat Ratna demanded for ex CM UP and several times union minister H N Bahuguna, posthumously

The former cabinet minister of Uttarakhand and the leader of opposition in the Uttarakhand assembly Indira Hridayesh castigated the late leader’s family of leaving the Congress party and joining the ruling BJP for political gains while fully compromising the principles, values, political ethics and secular credentials for which Bahuguna fought all his life and gave up power and significant political positions.

Indira Hridayesh was on 16th September addressing late Bahuguna protagonists and all party workers in one of the functions’ organised by the HN Bahuguna Centenary Celebrations Committee at the press club Dehradun, Uttarakhand amid chanting of Bahuguna Zindabad slogans.

Lauding late Bahuguna as a towering political legend and a true secularist who never compromised on principles and secular ethics Indira Hridayesh said that outstanting and transparent secular leaders like HN Bahuguna are seldom born in this land of abode of Gods and therefore ome and all present here should imbibe his principles, noble works and secular values which are the need of the hour to keep our society, nation and the state communally free from all shakcles in order to ensure its all round progress.

Hridayesh assured the audience that she will do her best to recommend the lateleader’s name to the centre for Bharat Ratna and also ensure that his picture is permanently fixed in the Uttarakhand Secretariat and the assembly as well as a mark of reverence and recognition to this great mass leader of his time who had been the great freedom fighter, ex union minister several times and the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

The former leader of democratic socialist party in parliament during Bahuguna’s time during the eighties and two time minister in the LDF government in Kerala Neela Lohitadaasan Nadar hailed H. N. Bahuguna as a statesman and said that he had followers from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari as he was a mass leader with transparent secular and socialist credentials always wanting to wipe the tears from the eyes of the last person of the distant villages of the country and bridging the gap between the haves and have nots.

The southern leader and the national general secretary of Janta Dal ( Secular) Nadar said Bahuguna sacrificed his political positions and ministerships for the sake of protecting secular principles and keeping the country together.

He said: Bahuguna’s entire life was dedicated for freedom struggle liberating the country from the clutches of the British and leading the nation towards development by way of establishing communal amity and pursuing pro poor developmental policies. Sr. advocate of Supreme Court and Bahugna’s colleague ZK Faizan said leader like Bahuguna take birth once in a century whose single point agenda was the over all development of the nation by keeping the society amd the country communal tensions free and improving the socio economic lot of the poor, oppressed, depressed and the backwards of the country.

He believed in the ethos and principles of Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru and wanyed to be the PM of the country to eradicate poverty, unemployment, communal dis harmony and the disparity between the rich and the poor but the destiny did not allowed him to do so who left all of us when the country needed him the most.

The sr journalist, president of Uttarakhand Journalists Forum and Bahuguna’s desciple Sunil Negi hailed the late leader terming him as a statesman who are born once in a century.

He hailed Bahuguna for being critical of draconion emergency thus being concerned for the human rights and the freedom of the people of the country and added that he preferred disintegrating the Janata party than compromising on secular values and principles.

Reminding the audience of the historic Garhwal election of 1984 which got postponed twice due to the malpractices let loose  by the then Indira government at the centre,  Negi said brave, courageous and intrepid Bahuguna had then fought the entire political establishment at the centre under Indira Gandhi’s leadership single handedly and had won the election despite the complete thrust of the union and state governments of Congress ensuring his defeat, thus popularising Garhwal’s name internationally then.

Negi said he was in close proximity of Bahuguna for more than a decade anf have learnt a lot from him. Bahuguna was outstanding leader with socio secular credentials whose only aim was to keep the socio cultural and communal fabric of the country intact andprone for progressive mational development emphasising on the decentralised socio economic development at the grass root levels of the country.

Negi said the country today needed leaders’ like Bahuguna when the nation’s communal fabric is in shambles and disarray. Others who spoke on the o ocassion were the Uttatakhand Kranti Dal president Kashi Singh Airy, former UK minister and convenor of the event Dhirendra Pratap, Dr. Lukman, former V C HP University , Comrade Samar Singh Bhandari of CPI, Com Bachi Ram Kanswal, Mahesh Kalauni, JP Pandey, Sarita Negi, Krishnanand Maithani, and others.

The next programme under the auspicies of HN Bahuguna Centenary Celebrations is due in Mumbai on Devember 23rdn 24th after three even already held in New Delhi, Cochin and Dehradun.