Mangalore: Inaugural procession of R Shankar statue held in city
Pics: Brijesh Garodi
Daijiworld Media Network-Mangalore
Mangalore, Aug 25: The inaugural procession of the statue of R Shankar, former CM of Kerala, organized by R Shankar Foundation of Kerala was held here at the Kudroli Shree Gokarnanatheshwara temple Hall, here on Sunday August 25.
The inauguration was held by Janardhan Poojary, former central minister and Ex KPCC president. The occasion was presided over by Ramesh Chennithala, president, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee.
In his welcome address, Shankar Prasad, secretary, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, said that the Yatra of the statue is to be flagged off today from the Kudroli Temple by Janardhan Poojary. This is a seven-day-long yatra. The unveiling of the statue is to be held at Trivandrum on September 7 by Sonia Gandhi.
In his presidential address, Ramesh Chennithala said "R Shankar has been and will be a very important person of our nation. He has achieved the highest position and status in the history of Congress in Kerala. The people of Kerala remember R Shankar till date, due to the major developments he had carried out during his political tenure."
Shankar is the main reasons for the 100% literacy rate in Kerala. The tenure of Shankar was a golden era in the history of Kerala. He always followed the philosophy of Brahmashree Narayana Guru Swamy, he added.
Speaking after inaugurating the occasion, B Janardhan Poojary said that R Shankar was a dynamic personality and a product of the Indian National Congress. He was considered as one of the best administrators not only in Kerala, but also in the whole of nation. Hailing from a downtrodden community, who was deprived of social privileges, he worked hard under the guidance of Narayana Guru and reached greater heights.
He always followed the principles of Narayana Guru and spread his philosophy of 'One caste , one religion and one God'. While comparing the present political situation with that of the earlier times, the whole of the system is going down at an alarming rate.
"The whole of our parliamentary system has been disturbed and has not been allowed free to carry out its duty and function as per regulations. The Loksabha speaker Meera has to be applauded for dismissing 12 members out of the parliament. Our country will be nowhere in the future, if we don’t select and elect good people to the parliament. Our next generation will also not spare this and they will also punish us for doing so," he said.
He finally urged all the leaders to be non-corrupt and to work hard for the welfare of the people and the nation, just like R Shankar because of whom, Kerala can claim being a number one state in terms of literacy.
State Ministers Ramanath Rai, Vinay Kumar Sorake, U T Khadar, MLA Mohiuddin Bava, leaders Ibrahim Kodijal, C K Shreedharan, Vijay Kumar Shetty, Sai Ram, Mohammed Masood, Abraham, I K Reju, Ravi Prakash, Dr Diwakar, Balakrishna, Abhilash, Shivababu,Suresh Ballal, Faizal, Mamtha Gatty, Ivan D’Souza and others were present.