Deendayal Upadhyay, Bhisham Sahani and Biju Patnaik icons for 2015-16

Source
24-Apr-2015:

NEW DELHI: Jana Sangh leader Deendayal Upadhyay, former Odisha CM Biju Patnaik and celebrated Hindi writer Bhisham Sahni will be among the 11 cultural icons to be commemorated by the Narendra Modi government in 2015 and 2016.

ET has learnt that a high-powered National Implementation Committee set up by the PMO and headed by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will be overseeing this exercise.

FM Arun Jaitley, HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma are the other members of the committee, which is finalising commemorative programmes that will be organised at the national level along with release of stamps and coins to honour these icons.

The icons have been selected according to the broad criteria of "nationalism and patriotism", said a top government official, who did not wish to be named.

Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay and Biju Patnaik will be commemorated in 2016 - on their 100th birth anniversaries.

Bhisham Sahni, whose novel 'Tamas' ranks among the landmark works on Partition, will be commemorated this year, also on his 100th birth anniversary.

Other icons to be commemorated this year include freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai on his 150th birth anniversary and Rajput ruler Maharana Pratap on his 475th birth anniversary.

The government will also commemorate the Maratha hero of the 1857 rebellion, Tatya Tope, assuming 2015 to be his 200th birth anniversary though his exact date of birth is now known. Rani Gaidinliu, a Naga spiritual and leader part of the Independence movement, will also be commemorated this year on her birth centenary.

"Four other names to be commemorated in 2016 will be decided by the committee and PMO in the next few months," the official cited earlier said.











No comments:

Post a Comment