Country pays tribute to ex-PM Lal Bahadur Shastri

The country on Sunday remembered former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri on his 112th birth anniversary with President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice-President Hamid Ansari and Prime Minister Narendra Modi paying tribute to him at his memorial here.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, senior BJP leader L K Advani, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Deputy Manish Sisodia joined Shastri’s family members, including his grandson Adarsh Shastri, in paying floral tributes to the leader at his Samadhi at Vijay Ghat.

They participated in a prayer meeting also.

Clad in a white kurta-pyjama, Modi paid homage to Shastri by offering rose petals at his memorial and performing a ‘parikrama’.

Leaders from various political parties, parliamentarians, freedom fighters, Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, Delhi government Ministers-- Kapil Mishra, Imran Hussain and MLAs-- also paid floral tributes to the former prime minister.

Bhajans were also recited on this occasion apart from picture exhibits at Vijay Ghat.

Shahtri had succeeded Jawahar Lal Nehru as prime minister of the country in 1964. During the 1965 war with Pakistan, he gave the slogan of ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’.