Hyderabad: Former Union minister and senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily said the tenure of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was a golden era in India. Rajiv Gandhi had given equal importance to peace, communal harmony, integrity and development, he said.
He was speaking after receiving the Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana Award here at Charminar on Tuesday. The Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana Commemoration Committee selected Moily for the award for 2021. After receiving the award, the former Karnataka Chief Minister said Santosh Hegde and Anna Hazare fought for Lokpal Bill, but they were not visible these days.
Rajiv had brought anti-corruption and anti-defection laws in the country, he said. The UPA government introduced the Lokpal Bill to curtail corruption, but the Modi government failed to implement it, he criticised. Elected representatives were being ‘purchased’ fixing rates during the Narendra Modi rule, he alleged.
Moily said Indians led peaceful and prosperous lives because of Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi who sacrificed their lives for the country. He hoped that the Congress would come to power in 2023 in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy hoisted Congress flag at Charminar, where former Rajiv Gandhi launched Sadbhavana Yatra on October 19, 1990.
AICC in-charge for Telangana Manickam Tagore, TPCC political affairs committee chairman Mohammad Ali Shabbir, MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, former PCC presidents V. Hanumantha Rao, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, and senior leaders J. Geeta Reddy, Marri Shashidhar Reddy and others were present.
