K'taka Cong pays tribute to Manmohan at venue planned for Belagavi convention

NT Correspondent

Belagavi: Karnataka Congress on Friday paid tributes to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who died on Thursday, at the site where they planned mega convention here for the centenary celebrations of the 1924 Indian National Congress session presided by Mahatma Gandhi. Several Congress leaders including its President Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, attended the extended Congress Working Committee meeting planned as part of the centenary celebrations, here on Thursday. They were scheduled to address a mega convention named 'Jai Bapu- Jai Bhim - Jai Samvidhan' here today, but the event was cancelled following Singh's demise.

Kharge, Gandhi and several AICC leaders have rushed back to Delhi. Other leaders including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister and state Congress chief D K Shivakumar, state ministers and legislators paid floral tributes to Singh's portrait at the venue planned for mega convention. Siddaramaiah in his address said, Manmohan Singh was a great economist and a very humble human being. "He was soft natured, soft and less spoken. I had the opportunity to meet him several times as the Leader of Opposition and Chief Minister of Karnataka. He treated and spoke to everyone respectfully and heard everyone patiently and used to say directly whether something told or requested of him will either happen or not," he said.

Singh was an honest Prime Minister, the CM said, he had occupied various positions and did justice to them, and tried to find solutions to various problems faced by the country. Recalling his tenure as finance minister in Narasimha Rao government and as prime minister, Siddaramaiah said, he opened up the economy, lifted the country financially, and the nation cannot forget his contribution.

It was Singh who brought in the food security act, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), Right to Education, Right to Information, Siddaramaiah said, "He tried to lift the people of the country socially and economically,'' he added.