Rajiv Gandhi gave voting right to 18-year-old citizens: Bansal

Former Union Minister and local ex-MP, Pawan Kumar Bansal today recalled the contribution of Rajiv Gandhi to the nation in a short period of five years as the Prime Minister. Speaking at a function on the occasion of his birth anniversary today at Deep Complex, Hallomajra, Bansal said Rajiv Gandhi ushered in information technology that transformed economy, started free residential Navodaya Vidyalayas for imparting quality education to poor children, created ministry of environment, signed peace accords to end unrest in some states, initiated measures to strengthen panchayats and municipalities with one-third seats reserved for women, and introduced voting rights at the age of 18.

“What a contrast!” he said, adding that, “While Rajiv Gandhi gave voting right to 18-year-old citizens through constitutional amendment and strengthened democracy by banning defection by elected representatives, the BJP government today is using the Election Commission to deprive people of exercising their right to franchise.”

Congress leaders Bhupinder Singh Badheri, Deipa Dubay, Vinod Sharma, Satish Kainth, Hafiz Anwar Ul Haq, Hakam Sarhadi, Rakesh Garg, Ravi Thakur, Ashish Gajnavi, Manoj Garg, Manoj Pawar, Sahil Dubay, Saleem Khan, Bablu Yadav, Sukhvir Singh, Rathi Kumar, JS Kohli, Navi Kumar, Lalita, Sohan Lal, Mukesh Kumar, Amit Kumar and Situ Makwana attended the programme.