Year-long 125th birth anniversary celebrations of Jawaharlal Nehru, organised by Congress, culminates tomorrow with the party set to launch web portals in English and Hindi to highlight the legacy India's first Prime Minister, which it feels is under assault ever since NDA came to power.
"It is important that the country upholds his legacy and remembers him, particularly at a time when the present government is assaulting Nehruvian values and his legacy," Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma told reporters here.
Highlighting the contributions of India's first Prime Minister, he said Nehru brought mega PSUs, big infrastructure projects and also IITS and IIMs, and National Institute of Design.
"We feel it is our shared national duty to salute one of the tallest leaders of his time in the world and a great hero of the Indian people," Sharma said.
This is the second mega event organised by the party within a week, after a two-day conference was organised at Jawahar Bhavan on November 6 and 7.
During the conference, Congress had brought many writers and historians, including with Left leaning, to discuss freedom equality, democracy and secularism in today's context.
Congress' frontal wing Seva Dal will take out a march tomorrow morning before the main function starts at Indira Gandhi stadium here.
During the event, party President Sonia Gandhi, Vice President Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are expected to speak on Nehru's ideas, their relevance in contemporary times and the present day political situation.
Besides one portal each in English and Hindi, a commemorative volume on Nehru is also being brought on the occasion.
The programme will conclude in the evening with a music extravaganza "Purnam" at Nehru Park where some top artistes including Sonu Nigam, Ustad Chand Afzal and group (Sufiana Qawwali), Vidushi Aruna Sairam (Carnatik Kritis) from Chennai will perform after recital of Vedic chants by representatives of Panini Kanya Mahavidyalaya of Varanasi.
The year-long event had begun in 2014 with an international conference in the capital, attended by prominent personalities including politicians from abroad and a number of non-Congress and non-BJP leaders here.
The party had set up a high-level committee headed by party veteran A K Antony, which held a series of deliberations with state heads of the party and its frontal wings, to organise the concluding day programme.
In 2014, the party had set up a committee headed by Sonia Gandhi to organise Nehru's 125th anniversary on a big scale with party leader Anand Sharma launching a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "trying to rewrite history" as Congress drew up programmes highlighting the Nehru's achievements.
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