Rajiv Gandhi remembered

CHANDIGARH, Aug 20: Haryana Congressmen today recalled Rajiv Gandhi’s contribution in modernisation of India. The occasion was a seminar – "Rajiv Gandhi: His vision of 21st century and the World" – organised by the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) on the late leader’s 54th birth anniversary at the HPCC headquarters here.

Addressing the participants, HPCC president Bhupinder Singh Hooda highlighted the former prime minister’s role in decentralisation of power through Panchayati Raj, lowering of voting age from 21 to 18 years and enacting law for reservation of 33 per cent seats for women in local bodies.

Others who spoke on the occasion included former ministers – Shyam Chand and Chattar Pal Singh – president of Ambala and Panchkula District Congress Committees – Balwant Gupta and R.S. Chauhan – and HPCC minority cell chairman Jagdeep Singh Cheema. Earlier in the morning, Hooda and other party workers garlanded the portrait of Rajiv Gandhi.