SHILLONG: Advisor to the state government and Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president, DD Lapang, expressed hope that people in the country would elect the Congress back to power at the Center.
Addressing the gathering at the concluding function of the year-long Indira Gandhi Birth Centenary Celebrations, (November 19-20) at the party’s office, he said, “We hope that the public and millions of souls in India will bring back the Congress to the Center once again to run the show and to rule this big country.”
According to him, the strong foundation of secularism as laid by Gandhi was being threatened by certain forces and called upon the party men “to leave no stone unturned” to bring the party back to power.
Stating that freedom of religion and expression is being affected, he said, “I want to link up with the present political situation. If we open our eyes and see what the Congress has done, no one can do it. And if at all, they try to forget it, they will not forget.”
He recalled the contributions of Indira Gandhi and her visit to the state at Madan Nongthymmai, during which she wore yellow Khasi traditional attire, Jainsem-Dhara.
“We cannot forget Indira Gandhi because through her hand, we get the hill state. She said, ‘We gave you a state of your own so that you can grow according to your own genius’,” Lapang recalled.
He called upon the party functionaries not to leave behind the memories of Gandhi, known be a prominent figure in the Congress circle, but to continue to succeed, survive, thrive and prosper.
Lapang said, “100 years ago, who might have thought the child who was born on November 19, 1917, would change the face of not only India, but the world as whole.”
Lapang observed that Indira Gandhi had a political instinct in her, which had guided her throughout the whole journey.
“She left strong foot prints on the rocks of the history which will never be washed away,” he added.
He reminded the gathering of Gandhi’s last speech which she delivered at Bhubaneswar, Odisha, prior to her assassination that every drop of her blood will invigorate India and strengthen it.
The MPCC observed the year-long Indira Gandhi Birth Centenary Celebrations beginning on November 19, 2016, at Booth, Block, District and the PCC levels, together with the frontal organisations and the PCC Departments.
Similar Functions were held in all eleven DCCs, and two City Congress Committees and the BCCs and Booth Levels, throughout the State during the day.