A prayer meeting to pay tribute to the Former Prime Minister Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee was held at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Mountaineering Institute Manali in Kullu district today. The Urn containing “Ashes” of Vajpayee were also kept here, hundreds of people from different walks of life paid homage to their beloved leader. A Sarv Dharam Prayer Meeting was also held on the occasion. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, MPP &Power Minister Anil Sharma, Transport and Forests Minister Govind Singh, Member of Parliament Ram Swaroop Sharma, MLAs Col Inder Singh, Vinod Kumar, Inder Singh Gandhi, Surinder Shourie, MP and Former Minister Maheshwar Singh and Roop Singh Thakur, Organisation Secretary BJP Pawan Rana, Additional Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Sanjay Kundu, Deputy Commissioner Kullu Yunus, SP Kullu Ms. Shalini Agnihotri, members of various cultural, political and social Organisations and other eminent people of the area paid their homage to their beloved leader.Later, the Ashes were immersed at Vishastha, Beas River near Manali by the Chief Minister.
Describing Atal Bihari Vajpayee a multi-faceted personality, Jai Ram Thakur said that apart from being the statesman, he was an excellent orator, a passionate poet and a committed journalist. He said that although he was away from active life for the last twelve year but still because of his noble works lakhs of people participated in his funeral pyre, this shows his popularity among the common masses. He said that Vajpayee always showered special benevolence on the State of Himachal Pradesh and its people.Chief Minister said that Atal Bihari Vajpayee always considered Himachal Pradesh his second home and has a house at Prini in Kullu district. He loved to visit the State whenever he got time from his busy schedule. He said that it was Atal Bihari Vajpayee who conceived the idea to construct Rohtang tunnel for connecting landlocked hinterland Lahaul valley with rest of the world way back in 1998. He said that Rohtang Tunnel was announced by him on June 3, 2000. He said that this project was nearing completion and would be the biggest gift of Shri Vajpayee to the State.He said that as a Prime Minister in the year 2002, Shri Vajpayee recited his poems is the Auditorium of the Mountaineering Institute Manali.
He said that Shri Vajpayee was a poet from the heart and had special love for the mountains. He said that he gave big messages through his poems. He also recalled few lines from the poems written by Shri Vajpayee. He also nostalgically remembered his last meeting with Shri Vajpayee at Prini residence. Chief Minister said that people would come from far flung areas just to listen to the speeches of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He said that his speeches used to be very fiery and phenomenal and whenever Shri Vajpayee was addressing the public meetings, even his adversary would eagerly listen to his speech.He urged the people to share memories and memoirs with Atal Bihari Vajpayee so that the same can be used in a befitting manner to make these memories evergreen. He also planted a sapling of Deodar in memory of Shri Vajpayee in the complex of the Institute and also tied Rakhi to the sapling.Forest and Transport Minister Govind Singh Thakur while paying tributes to Shri Vajpayee said that Shri Vajpayee had special love for the people of Himachal Pradesh in general ad Kullu-Manali in particular.MP Ram Swaroop Sharma described Shri Vajpayee as a world leader with a poet from the heart. He said that it was the sheer grit of Shri Vajpayee to go ahead with Pokhran Nuclear Test making India a nuclear power.Former MP Maheshwar while speaking on the occasion paid rich tributes to Shri Vajpayee.