Rajiv Gandhi's farsighted policies helped build modern India: Rahul

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday paid rich tributes to Rajiv Gandhi on his 77th birth anniversary, with Rahul Gandhi saying that the former prime minister was a man with a tremendous vision, whose farsighted policies helped build modern India.

Rahul Gandhi paid floral tributes to his father at the former prime minister's memorial, Vir Bhumi, and spent some time there. "Rajiv Gandhi ji was a man with tremendous vision, whose farsighted policies helped build modern India," the former Congress chief said in a Facebook post.

"He was a wonderful father, a compassionate and loving human being. He will always stay alive in my heart. Paid my respects to him at Vir Bhumi," Rahul Gandhi said.

Senior Congress leaders Pawan Kumar Bansal, K C Venugopal and Indian Youth Congress (IYC) chief Srinivas B V were among those who visited Vir Bhumi along with Rahul Gandhi.

"A secular India alone is an India that can survive," Rahul Gandhi posted his father's quote on Facebook. "Remembering Shri Rajiv Gandhi ji on his birth anniversary," he said in a post. Congress president Sonia Gandhi paid tributes to the former prime minister at the Parliament House.

Rahul Gandhi inaugurated a photo-exhibition dedicated to Rajiv Gandhi, and it was organised by the IYC. He also unveiled a bust of the former prime minister at the IYC headquarters here.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi posted a picture of hers with Rajiv Gandhi when she was a child along with a note which read, "The brave do not fall silent before injustice, they speak up for what is right and good, they do not cower when it is dark, they stand strong, they spread the light of truth across skies blackened by deceit. The brave never die."

Meanwhile, hitting out at the BJP for repeatedly asking the Congress what it did during its 70 years in power, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday said the grand old party kept the country undivided and democracy intact and it was due to this that new governments were formed.

He said the country got independence because Congress leaders made sacrifices and went to jails. Gehlot was speaking at a programme held to commemorate the 77th birth anniversary of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

He said it was very easy to ask what the Congress did during its 70 years in power. In these 70 years, the Congress kept the country and democracy intact and further strengthened them. Unlike Pakistan, India did not fall under military rule, he added.

"Governments in the country keep coming and going. The present government, too, was formed only because the roots of democracy were strong. These people forget this," Gehlot said without naming anyone. In a democracy, criticism is welcomed but these people cannot tolerate it and consider it sedition, he said, targeting the Centre. Gehlot said former prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi sacrificed their lives for the nation. "Our leaders made sacrifices and went to jails and it was because of their sacrifices and struggle that the country got independence," he said.

"The new generation will have to understand this and they will understand when they study history, be it of pre-independence or post-independence era. Those who learn from history are able to make history," he said. Gehlot said Rajiv Gandhi took hundreds of decisions during his tenure as PM that transformed the country in the following years.