New Delhi: Prof. Bhim Singh, Chief Patron of JKNPP & Sr. Advocate, Supreme Court paid tributes to Mrs. Indira Gandhi, former Prime Minister & most popular Congress leader in the country who has gone down in history as one of the great leaders of the world. Mrs. Indira Gandhi was assassinated at her official residence, New Delhi, by her security guards. Paying tributes to Mrs. Indira Gandhi on 36th death anniversary, Prof.Bhim Singh described Mrs. Indira Gandhi as one of the most popular Prime Ministers of India. Prof.Bhim Singh said that Mrs. Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister received everybody even the ordinary person when she was the Prime Minister. He said that she was, perhaps, the only Prime Minister who used to achieve visitors from any part of India having any status in the society. The poorest one could reach the Prime Minister at her residence.

He said that his first meeting with Mrs. Indira Gandhi was in 1963 at Talkotra Gardens, New Delhi during the Xth Youth Festival of India when Bhim Singh was a participant who raised some issues on J&K after Nehru ji’s speech. Nehru ji told Indira ji to pacify Bhim Singh. Bhim Singh was student of Aligarh Muslim University who was part of AMU delegation to the Youth Festival.

Again it was Prime Minister Mrs. Gandhi in 1966, who protected him and his colleagues/student leaders from Jammu when they reached Delhi to seek her intervention for support in connection with killings of four student leaders in Jammu by the J&K police.  It was she who got the Mukherjee Commission constituted to inquire into police firing and killings of four students in Jammu in 1966. The Jammu movement was led by Bhim Singh, Chief Organiser of Students Congress in support of the demands of the Jammu students for a separate university, engineering and medical colleges etc.

He remembers that it were she who got him appointed as Youth Congress President of J&K State in 1973 with clear instructions to the then President Indian Youth Congress, Mr. Priyo Ranjan Dasmunsi that he should be allowed to mobilize youth against corruption when Bhim Singh had returned from world tour and met Mrs. Gandhi at her residence.

He remembered that it was Mrs. Indira Gandhi who got him work in Indian Youth Congress in New Delhi when he was expelled by J&K Pradesh Congress in 1974. He said that it was she who got him work as a Secretary of National Legal Aid Committee when he resigned from the Youth Congress following political differences with Mr. Sanjay Gandhi in 1975. He said that it was she who stood by his 20-point programme for the youth of the country during the Emergency. His (Bhim Singh) slogan, ‘Talk less and work more’ adopted by several political organizations since then. It were she who got him Congress mandate from Chenani Assembly Constituency in J&K in spite of the total opposition by the State Congress leaders in 1977. He said that Mrs. Gandhi in spite of his political confrontation with J&K Congress offered him number two position in G.M. Shah’s government in 1984 which he refused. Bhim Singh was the only non-Congress (Panthers Party MLA) from Jammu Pradesh in 1983 Assembly polls when he defeated Congress & National Conference candidates. Bhim Singh said that had Mrs. Gandhi lived longer, J&K’s so-called problems would have been settled a long time back. He said that she braved CIA attacks against her and did not budge an inch even when Foreign Secretary of USA, Henry Kissinger, abused her in person.

He described assassination of one of the greatest leaders of the world and the most popular Prime Ministers of India as one of the greatest tragedies of India which cannot be forgiven or forgotten.

He said that the contributions made by Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, Mrs. Indira Gandhi and some other Prime Ministers to strengthen National Integration cannot be forgotten. Mrs. Indira Gandhi was a shining star of India and shall continue in the history of India and the world. He described statement of Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi only yesterday in praise of Mrs. Gandhi is appreciable. He must have learnt in the PM House as Prime Minister of India, about the great contributions about Mrs. Indira Gandhi in every field including defence, judicial system among other things in India.

Prof.Bhim Singh said that during his world tour from 1967 to 1973, the world intellectuals, press and the politicians with whom he interacted knew Mrs. Indira Gandhi as India’s shining star. He was rightly described by the press and the statesmen as a shining star of India who strengthened secularism and democracy in India.