Four generations of Hoodas associated with Nehru-Gandhi family: Bhupinder Hooda

Former Haryana chief minister and senior Congress Party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda today recalled and remembered the political association of four generations of his family with the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Addressing a gathering of distinguished personalities that included President Pranab Mukherjee, on the occasion of the birth centenary celebrations of his father and senior Congress leader Chaudhary Ranbir Singh Hooda at the Vigyan Bhawan here, Hooda said members of his family had and have always been inspired by the Nehru-Gandhi family.

He said that this association had been established from the days of the national freedom struggle when the British were in control of India, through to the undertaking of massive socio-economic development programmes in independent India.

He described Ranbir Singh Hooda as a true freedom fighter and patriot who had contributed immensely to the social and political development of India.

He said that he loved each country men and was never jealous of anybody in his life. He said his father had the unique record of being a member of seven different houses during his life time.

He recalled that Chaudhary Ranbir Singh Hooda was incarcerated in eight jails during the struggle for independence, and of them, four were in modern-day Pakistan.

Hooda said his father took voluntary retirement from active politics at the age 64, but continued to serve in various social and cultural organizations.

Chaudhary Ranbir Singh, he said, was a pious personality throughout his over nine-decade-long life.

Hooda made a special mention about the contributions of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh for the overall development of freedom fighters and their families during the decade-long rule of the UPA regime.

Hooda felicitated President Pranab Mukherjee and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by presenting shawls and books about his father.

Rohtak Member Parliament Deepender Singh Hooda felicitated Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, veteran Congress leader and AICC Treasurer Moti Lal Vohra, Members Parliament Sharad Pawar, Sitaram Yechury and Ajit Singh.

Vohra read out a message forwarded by Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi.

In her message, Gandhi remembered the role played by Chaudhary Ranbir Singh Hooda in India's freedom struggle, and his contribution to the reconstruction and development of Independent India.

She also underlined Ranbir Singh Hooda's role as a cabinet minister in the Punjab and Haryana governments between the 1950s and 1970s, and termed him a true Congress soldier who was inspired by the ideas and policies of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.