Sonia to kick off Indira birth centenary celebrations on Nov 19

The party is trying to capitalise on the legacy of the leader ahead of the UP polls early next year

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will kick off the birth centenary celebrations of former prime minister Indira Gandhi on November 19, as the party is trying to capitalise on the legacy of the leader, ahead of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Assembly polls early next year. Centenary is the 100th anniversary of an event.

“President Pranab Mukherjee will deliver the Indira Gandhi centenary lecture. He has accepted Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s invitation,” Congress veteran Anand Sharma, involved in the preparations, told Business Standard.

Mukherjee had worked in Indira’s Cabinet and is a strong supporter of Nehruvian ideals.

Sonia, who will also address the gathering at Vigyan Bhavan, is expected to make a political point, while celebrating the birth anniversary of the firebrand leader, even as the National Democratic Alliance government has targeted the legacy of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, since it came to power in 2014.

“Indira Gandhi stood for a united, secular India. Her thoughts will always be relevant to the country,” said Sharma.

According to Sheila Dikshit, who is three-term former Delhi chief minister and heads a party panel on Indira’s birth centenary celebrations, the day will see the start of year-long events in the memory of the leader.

“There will be year-long events across the states, which will include seminars on Indira Gandhi,” she said.

Sharma further said a series of lectures across various universities, a commemorative book, and a website on the life and times of Indira Gandhi would also be launched on November 19.

The party is also planning an event at Swaraj Bhawan in Allahabad, where Indira was born.

Sources said Swaraj Bhawan, the nerve centre of India’s freedom movement as the Congress national headquarters, has been done up nicely, where Sonia is expected to dedicate to the nation the room where Indira was born in 1917.

The party’s national headquarters at 24 Akbar Road and the state offices will be illuminated on the day. The Congress had held similar events in memory of Nehru earlier.

The celebrations are expected to charge up party workers not only in UP where the Congress is trying hard to revive itself, but across states where the party is out of power.

Though the initial plan was to stage a big show in Allahabad, party managers later thought that a message to be given in the national capital was necessary.