150th birth anniversary of Sri Aurobindo: PM to chair 53 member panel, Manmohan, Mamata, Kharge, Rajnikanth included

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 21

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a high-level 53 member committee the government formed on Tuesday to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Indian philosopher Sri Aurobindo.

The committee has among members former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda apart from ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar, Dharmendra Pradhan, Hardeep Puri, GK reddy and Anurag Thakur.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her counterparts from Gujarat Bhupendra Patel, Tamil Nadu MK Stalin and Puducherry N Rangaswamy are also part of the panel along with actor Rajnikant.

Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Karan Singh and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury have also been included along with spiritual leaders Sri Sri Ravishankar, Baba Ramdev and Jaggi Vasudev besides composer Ilayiyaraja.

"The terms of reference of the committee are to provide policy direction and guidelines for formulation of programmes for the commemoration of the 150th birth anniversary of Sri Aurobindo at the national and international level. The term of the committee commences forthwith," a Ministry of Culture notification said.

Sri Aurobindo was born on August 15, 1872, in Kolkata.