New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday released a commemorative coin of Rs 100 on the birth centenary of Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia. The PM recalled the legacy of the royal and paid his respects to her.
Speaking at a virtual ceremony, PM Modi lauded Rajmata Scindia for dedicating her life to poor people. The special coin minted by the Ministry of Finance is being released in celebration of her birth centenary.
"Rajmata Scindia dedicated her life to poor people. She proved that for people's representatives not 'Raj Satta' but 'Jan Seva' is important," Modi said. Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindiaji was a witness to every important phase of Indian politics from the independence movement to the decades after independence. Prior to independence, Rajmata's experiences have expanded widely, from burning Holi of foreign clothes, to the Emergency and the Ram Temple movement."
PM Modi also recalled that during an Ekta Yatra, Vijaya Raje Scindiaji had introduced him as Narendra Modi, the youth leader of Gujarat. "After so many years, today he is in front of you with many memories of her as the Prime Minister of the country," Modi said.
PM Modi also said that Vijaya Raje Scindia had turned down many posts with humility. Once, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani had urged her to become the President of the Jana Sangh, but she turned that down too. However, she served the Sangh as an activist, Modi said.
It needs mention here that Vijaya Raje Scindia is popularly known as the Rajmata of Gwalior. She was a prominent Indian political personality. In the days of the British Raj, as the consort of the last ruling Maharaja of Gwalior, Jivajirao Scindia, she ranked among the highest royal figures of the land.