NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Speaker of Lok Sabha Om Birla, Union ministers and parliamentarians paid floral tributes to Madan Mohan Malaviya and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari on Friday Vajpayee in the Central Hall of Parliament on his birthday.
Prime Minister Modi also published a book, “Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Commemorative Volume”, to mark the occasion.
Shortly after the book was released, when the prime minister was about to leave the place, Aam Aadmi Party AAP members Sanjay Singh and Bhagwant Mann launched slogans demanding the repeal of the three new central agricultural laws.
Modi was speaking with the leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and leader of Congress Party in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury at that time.
Besides Azad and Chowdhury, Samajwadi Party LJP Patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and Chirag Paswan were among other legislators present at the event.
The leaders first paid homage to Malaviya and later to Vajpayee in their portraits in the Central Hall.
Born in 1861, Malaviya was a former president of Congress who later founded the Hindu Mahasabha. He was also one of the founders of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU).
Noting that Malaviya was an inspiration behind BHU, Prime Minister Modi, in a tweet earlier that day, praised him as a multifaceted talent.
His contribution to the country will inspire generations to come, the prime minister said.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was born in 1924, was a founding member of Jana Sangh and later the BJP, a party that emerged from the margins to rule India for the first time in the 1990s, with him being its main face.
His tenure is credited with starting a new wave of liberalization, boosting growth and infrastructure.
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