In the centenary year celebration, iconic Raj Narain to be remembered in Varanasi

New Delhi, Nov 16: Some of the forgotten leaders of the country are being celebrated either by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or by people associated with it who have the credit of covering uncovered milestones in the Indian politics but they are somehow ignored. Among some such leaders, name of Raj Narain is quite important whose centenary year is being celebrated and a big programme is planned on December 16, 2018 in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency Varanasi in which his political legacy and his brand of politics will be discussed. Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Manoj Sinha are likely to participate in it.

Raj Narain has the credit of changing political landscape of the country, who was opposed to policies and practices of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He contested 1971 Lok Sabha elections from Rai Bareli as an SSP candidate and was defeated but accused Gandhi of corrupt electoral practices filing a petition. Allahabad High Court on June 12, 1975 set aside election of Indira Gandhi and disqualified her to contest Lok Sabha election for next 6 years leading to imposition of Emergency. Emergency was lifted in January 1977 and Narain defeated Indira Gandhi from Rai Bareli constituency by a margin of more than fifty thousand votes. This was the turning point of Indian politics.

One of the organisers and former Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha president Ram Ashish Rai told Oneindia, "See this is the time when credibility of political parties and leaders is questioned. The way it is progressing with involvement of money, caste, nepotism and dynasty, in such an environment Ran Narain is the best example to tell the news generation that how selfless people like Ran Narain were in Indian politics."

Rai said, "In such a situation, if anyone can be the symbol of clean politics, it was Raj Narain. He worked for the country, society and without money being involved in his brand of politics. He also kept away from nepotism and dynastic politics. So the matter will be discussed that how such people have been in politics who donated his land to poor. No one knows what his three sons do. This will send the right message in the society."

So it is planned that such people must be projected among youths as their icons if change in politic has to be brought about. This will definitely help people to get involved in right kind of politics. Besides deliberations, discussions, seminars and other activities people involved with him and worked with him will be honored in in Varanasi. Arun Kumar. BJP MP Ashok Vajpayee, Anand Kumar, Dauji Gupta, Surendra Kumar, journalists, social workers and people in different political parties who had worked with him will join in Varanasi. "We have already organised programmes in every district for his centenary celebrations. The programme was launched in November 23 from Talkatora Stadium in Delhi which was represented by Union Ministers Suresh Prabhu and Manoj Sinha."

Such programmes are also scheduled to happen in Deoria, Gorakhpur, Patna and Kolkata. It is scheduled for November 18 in Mumbai. There is also a plan to bring out Raj Narayan Samagra but that would take little more time and is not possible by December, concluded Rai.