New Delhi, Sep 25 (PTI) The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Friday said that it will organise thousands of seminars, meetings and other programmes across the country and abroad to mark the birth centenary of its former president Ashok Singhal and accelerate his “unfinished work”.
Sharing details at a press conference here, VHP president Alok Kumar said the year-long programmes will begin with an inauguration ceremony of Singhal’s birth centenary at Bharat Mandapam in Delhi on Sunday.
The event, to be jointly organised by the VHP and Ashok Singhal Foundation, will be graced by RSS general secretary Dattareya Hosabale, Home Minister Amit Shah and Mahamandaleshwar Swami Paramanand Giri Ji Maharaj, he said.
Born in Agra on September 27 in 1926, Singhal had been associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since 1942. After completing metallurgical engineering from Banaras Hindu University Institute of Technology in 1950, he became a full-time pracharak of the RSS and later served as prant pracharak for Delhi and Haryana.
In 1980, he was deputed to the VHP where he became its joint general secretary. In 1984, he became VHP general secretary and later elevated to the post of the organisation’s president, a role which continued until December 2011.
Singhal, who rose to prominence playing a leading role in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement in the late eighties and in the following years, passed away at a private hospital in Gurugram on November 17, 2015.
Kumar said that Singhal made “unparalleled contributions” to the country and society with his visionary “thinking”.
“On his birth centenary starting September 27, we have decided to honour his inspiring life, visionary thinking and his contributions,” the VHP president said.
“We will honour his memory by accelerating his unfinished initiatives such as a ban on illegal religious conversions, a ban on cow slaughter, promotion of ‘ghar wapsi’ and propagation of Vedic knowledge and Sanskrit. To this end, we will organise thousands of seminars, public meetings and other events throughout the year,” he added.
Kumar said that the objective of the birth centenary year programmes is to convey the life-message of Singhal to the wider society, instil a “sense of pride” in Indian culture and infuse new energy into initiatives focused on service, organisation, ‘sanskar’ and social harmony.
As part of this resolve, he said that inaugural events will be organised across 47 major locations in the country from September 27 to October 4.
Throughout the year, various programmes, including service activities, initiatives for social harmony, public awareness campaigns and seminars will be organised at “thousands of locations worldwide”, the VHP chief added. PTI PK PK KSS
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