New Delhi, 15 January (H.S.): Congress Parliamentary Party Chief Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday inaugurated the new headquarters of the party (Indira Gandhi Bhawan) located at 9A, Kotla Road here. Before this, the party flag was hoisted and the song and national anthem were sung. On this occasion, Sonia Gandhi and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge jointly inaugurated the formal inauguration by cutting ribbon.
On this occasion, Kharge, while addressing the Congressmen, said that this is a historic moment for the Congress. For the last 47 years, the headquarters of the Congress has been at 24, Akbar Road. “Today’s inauguration of the headquarters is a milestone in the history of our party. It is a matter of pride for all of us that the permanent office of the party will be named Indira Gandhi Bhawan. This building is built in the same area where our great heroes had thought,” he said.
On 31 December 1952, this was decided in the CWC meeting chaired by Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru. The voice of that day was that the Congress headquarters should be built in this area. Today Sonia Gandhi has fulfilled Nehru’s wish. Its foundation stone was laid on 28 December 2009 on the 125th foundation day of the Congress under the supervision of Sonia Gandhi. “Therefore, we also requested her to inaugurate it,” he added.
The Congress President said that during the most difficult period of the freedom struggle from 1920 to 1947, the Congress headquarters was in Swaraj Bhavan in Allahabad (now Prayagraj), where Indira Gandhi was born. That is why this new headquarters has been named Indira Bhavan.
The Congress headquarters was first at Jantar Mantar, then Rajendra Prasad Road and since 1978 at 24 Akbar Road. The Congress headquarters is not a building of bricks and stones but it has been a center of ideas. It is the ‘School of Democracy’ for the country. First the freedom struggle was fought from the Congress headquarters, then the nation building work was done, for which many people like Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi sacrificed their lives.
Kharge said that he remembered and saluted all the heroes from the first session of the Congress on 28 December 1885 till now. He said that this year marks 75 years of the Constitution of the country and 100 years of Gandhiji becoming the Congress President. Congress stands firm on the strength of its ideas. Dadabhai Naoroji, Mahatma Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu, Sardar Patel, Pandit Nehru, Maulana Azad, Subhash Chandra Bose and Rajendra Prasad etc. are our heritage.
The country became the largest democracy due to the efforts made under the leadership of Nehru. Ambedkar gave the world’s best constitution. Lal Bahadur Shastri gave the theory of Jai Jawan Jai Kisan. Referring to all the reformist programs of Indira Gandhi’s Prime Ministership and the Indo-Pak war of 1971, he said that this new Congress headquarters named after the country’s first woman Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is a symbol of mother power.
He said that the new headquarters will become the center of the fight against those who are endangering the Constitution. He accused the RSS and the BJP of tampering with the history of the country. He said that the countrymen and Congressmen should remember the history of the country. Dr. Ambedkar had said that those who forget history cannot make history.
On this occasion, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said in his address that the new headquarters is not an ordinary building, but it has emerged from the soil of the country. He said that those who say that India did not get independence in 1947, it is an insult to every Indian. Now the time has come that we should stop listening to this nonsense, because these people think that they will just keep on rote and shouting.
On this occasion, AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal, Priyanka Gandhi, Ajay Maken, Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states, including a large number of party officials and MPs, MLAs and workers were present.
Hindusthan Samachar
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