PM Modi to chair high-level panels to commemorate anniversaries of Sardar Patel, AB Vajpayee, Birsa Munda

While Patel’s 150th birth anniversary falls on October 31 this year, Vajpayee’s birth centenary year started on December 24 last year. Tribal icon Birsa Munda — who led one of the earliest tribal rebellions against British rule in 1899 — was born on November 15, 1875, and this year marks his 150th birth anniversary.

Officials said the government plans to honour all three icons in a big manner — through events, seminars, speeches and dialogue across the country, and not just in Delhi or their respective home states. Each of the three committees also has a host of state chief ministers, governors and Lieutenant-Governors as members — including S Abdul Nazeer, Governor of Andhra Pradesh; Admiral D K Joshi, Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar; Lakshman Prasad Acharya (Assam); Arif Mohammed Khan (Bihar); Ramen Deka (Chhattisgarh); and Acharya Devvrat (Gujarat).

As many as 19 state chief ministers have been included in the panels, including Nitish Kumar, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Mamata Banerjee, Mohan Charan Majhi, Manik Saha, MK Stalin, Bhupendra Patel, Sukhwinder Sukhu, and Hemant Soren.

Around 22 Union ministers have also been roped in — Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Health Minister JP Nadda and Agriculture Minister Shivraj Chauhan. Besides, the panels have MPs, government secretaries, sportspersons, authors, academicians, and families of the respective personalities as members.

In this regard, meetings of the respective committees will be held in the days to come to chalk out a detailed plan and also work out key dates for functions to be held in different cities.

As per the ministry’s gazette notification, the committees will “approve policies/plans, programmes and supervise and guide the commemorations”, and also “decide on the board dates for the detailed programme of celebration”.

“The recommendations of the Committee will be considered by the government for implementation, subject to extant Rules, instructions and practices,” the notification stated.

Divya A reports on travel, tourism, culture and social issues - not necessarily in that order - for The Indian Express. She's been a journalist for over a decade now, working with Khaleej Times and The Times of India, before settling down at Express. Besides writing/ editing news reports, she indulges her pen to write short stories. As Sanskriti Prabha Dutt Fellow for Excellence in Journalism, she is researching on the lives of the children of sex workers in India. ... Read More

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