Prayagraj, 25 April (HS): On the 105th anniversary of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna's birth, Congressmen and people from all backgrounds paid extravagant tributes to him. In the morning, his son Shekhar Bahuguna and son-in-law PC Joshi, as well as others present, paid respect by garlanding Bahuguna's statue.

Many top politicians from various parties, as well as influential individuals, paid respect to Bahuguna's memory. On this day, a 'tribute meet' was held at Fire Brigade Crossing, where his son, Shekhar Bahuguna, his wife Vinita Bahuguna, and INDIA alliance candidate Ujjawal Raman Singh offered floral tributes. On this day, an all-religious prayer meeting was also organized.

Speaking on the event, AICC member Shekhar Bahuguna highlighted Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna's contributions to the city's overall growth. He stated that the late Bahuguna's personality resembled a combination of Mahatma Gandhi and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Bahuguna, like Gandhi, was a great proponent of the idea of religious equality and unity in diversity, and he, like Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, had a strong drive and aptitude to take on new problems. He stated that following independence, numerous leaders changed parties on occasion during legislative history. Some abandoned one party for reasons of principle and joined another, while others did so for selfish benefit, and nowadays, politicians increasingly change parties like clothing.

Until 1980, no MP resigned from Parliament by switching parties. Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, the working president of the All India Congress Committee in 1980, was the country's first leader to do this. He was elected as an MP from Garhwal on a Congress ticket. He stated that Bahuguna's decision to form the cabinet immediately following the elections was due to disagreements with Indira Gandhi, and that after a few months, he resigned from the Congress, stating that he was also resigning from the MP membership of the party on whose symbol he had won the elections on moral grounds. He resigned from his position as an MP. There was no anti-defection law in the nation at the time, and Bahuguna was under no need to resign from his MP post owing to defection law, but he did so out of morals. He described Bahuguna as a brave leader who never compromised his ideals.

“He never gave up, no matter what the cost was, and he never wavered from his ideals. When he died on March 17, 1989, the country's prominent writer Khushwant Singh wrote in homage that, after Gandhi and Nehru, India had lost a real secular leader,” he opined prior to signing off.

Hindusthan Samachar/Abhishek Awasthi/Manoj