Vijaya Raje Scindia birth centenary fete from Oct 11

The Modi government has decided to celebrate the birth centenary of Vijaya Raje Scindia, popularly known as 'Rajmata of Gwalior', from October 11.

A 12-member national implementation committee (NIC), headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, will chalk out programmes and activities for the year-long celebrations, Union Culture Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The centenary celebrations of Scindia, who came to the forefront of the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership in 1980 when she was made one of its vice-presidents, will coincide with the BJP's poll campaign in the run up to the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh and two other States as well as the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

Scindia, who is the grandmother of Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, joined electoral politics in 1957 when she contested and won the Guna Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh on a Congress ticket. She quit the Congress later and won the Guna seat in 1967 on the Swatantra Party's ticket.

She later joined the Jan Sangh and won the Karera assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh in 1967.

Scindia later joined the BJP and contested elections. She remained a BJP vice-president until 1998 when she stepped down and quit electoral politics. She passed away in 2001.

“During the year-long birth centenary celebrations, a commemorative coin of Rs 100 denomination and commemorative postage stamp is proposed to be released in her honour,” the Culture Ministry said.

Rise of Rajmata

Other events include seminars, lectures, publications and programmes focused on women's empowerment.

“After completing her education, she was inspired by the freedom movement and joined the struggle for independence. She was actively engaged in different social activities, especially in the field of women's empowerment and worked closely with various organisations dedicated to the cause of upliftment of women through education,” the ministry added.