The Vice President of India, M. Hamid Ansari has said that Punjab was a focus of freedom struggle against the British rule. He was addressing the gathering after releasing the book ‘Indian National Congress in Punjab’ authored by Dr. Sukhchain Kaur Bassi, here today. The Vice President said that the Indian National Congress acquired a representative character to stand for the will and aspiration of all the Indian people who were reeling under the yoke of British imperialism. With the coming of Mahatma Gandhi on our political scene, the struggle transformed from a campaign by the elites into a true mass movement, he added. The Vice President said that the first Annual Convention of Congress in Punjab - the undivided Punjab - was held in Lahore in 1893 under the charge of the redoubtable Dadabhai Naoroji. The rapid growth of Congress activity and organization thereafter, is as much a testimony to the active participation of the people of Punjab in our freedom struggle as the energy and efforts of the political leaders and freedom fighters from Punjab, he added.