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Nirmala Deshpande strove for peace: Pratibha

Gargi Parsai

A “living Gandhian” who dedicated her life to the cause of the poor and the downtrodden: Manmohan

— Photo: S. Subramanium

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh paying homage to veteran Gandhian and Rajya Sabha MP Nirmala Deshpande who died in New Delhi on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led the nation in mourning renowned Gandhian, social activist, writer and Sanskrit scholar Nirmala Deshpande, who died here on Thursday. She was 79 and unmarried.

Ms. Deshpande, a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha, woke up at 4 a.m. and recited prayers in bed. When her personal attendant returned an hour later, she had breathed her last, her former private secretary Peter Parekattil told The Hindu. He said she attended the Upper House on Wednesday.

Funeral today

The funeral will be held on Friday at the Lodhi Road electric crematorium at 9.30 a.m.

The President, the Prime Minister, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi, several diplomats, Cabinet Ministers and Gandhians were among those who visited Ms. Deshpande’s Shahjehan Road residence to pay their last respects.

Vinoba’s disciple

A disciple of Vinoba Bhave, Ms. Deshpande joined the Acharya’s Bhoodan Yatra in 1952 and walked more than 40,000 km during the Bhoodan Movement, propagating non-violence.

She spent her early years at Vinoba’s Paunar Ashram in Wardha before moving to Delhi to be with Indira Gandhi during the Emergency and in the post-Emergency years when Indira lost the elections.

Popularly known as ‘Didi’, she was conferred the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award in August 2005. In 2006, Ms. Deshpande was conferred Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian honour, for her social initiative, including development of the Gandhi Global Peace Centre at Gandhi Ashram, Kingsway Camp in Delhi. She is the president of the Harijan Sewak Sangh, a national body set up by Mahatma Gandhi and dedicated to working for the uplift of Dalits, and a member of several other organisations.

Peace teams to Pakistan

A votary of communal peace and harmony, she was actively involved in efforts to usher in peace, especially between India and Pakistan, and led several peace delegations to Pakistan. In 2005, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

President Patil expressed deep sorrow at the demise of Ms. Deshpande, whom she described as a close friend. “In her passing away, the nation had lost a person who dedicated her life for communal harmony, peace, amity and understanding.”

Expressing deep grief, the Prime Minister described her as a “living Gandhian,” who had dedicated her life to the cause of the poor, the downtrodden and the marginalised. A leader of the people who led by example, Dr. Singh said her activism saw her going beyond the struggle launched by Acharya Vinoba Bhave for ‘Bhoodan.’

For Congress president Sonia Gandhi, “Nirmalaji was an abiding and cherished source of guidance, support and steadfast friendship, whose loss leaves a void that will be hard to fill.”

Recounting her contribution to the empowerment of women, promotion of communal harmony and rural development, Vice-President Hamid Ansari said these were undertaken within the framework of Gandhian philosophy.

“An institution”

Describing her as an “institution, not just a dedicated individual,” the Communist Party of India said that in her death the country had lost a great fighter for peace, non-violence, secularism and democracy.

In a special tribute to her, Pakistan’s Information Minister Sherry Rehman is leading a delegation of mourners from across the border — in a special chartered flight — to pay their last respects.

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