LS, RS pay tributes to Vajpayee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 11

The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha paid rich tributes to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee before both Houses were adjourned for the day.

Vajpayee and four other former and incumbent Lok Sabha MPs had passed away during the intersession period. The winter session of Parliament began on Tuesday.

Soon after the House met for the day, beginning the winter session of Parliament, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan made the obituary references. A two-minute silence was observed in memory of the deceased.

Mahajan described Vajpayee as a “visionary” leader of the “masses” and one of the “greatest” parliamentarians. She went on to recall his role in the Pokhran nuclear tests of 1998 and the work to start the golden quadrilateral road project.

“His personality will always be a source of inspiration for us,” she said and conveyed sympathies of the House to the members of Vajpayee’s family. Vajpayee had died on August 16 in Delhi after a prolonged illness.

The House also paid tributes to former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who passed away on August 13 in Kolkata. Tributes were also paid to four sitting MPs -- Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar, Begusarai MP Bhola Singh, Senior Congress leader and Kishanganj MP Mohammad Asrarul Haque Qasmi and MI Shanavas, the working president of the Congress unit in Kerala.

In the Rajya Sabha, its Chairman and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu read out the obituary, describing Vajpayee as the "epitome of politics of grace."

Naidu said: “Atal ji launched sincere and spirited initiatives to improve India-Pakistan relations. The famous Lahore declaration that followed the historic Lahore bus yatra in February 1999 made India and Pakistan commit to dialogue, expand trade relations and mutual friendship and envisaged a goal of a de-nuclearised South Asia”.

He described Vajpayee as a visionary statesman, an erudite scholar, a distinguished parliamentarian, an able administrator, a proven leader of the masses and above all, a great human being who believed in the core Indian values of harmony and synthesis.