PM Narendra Modi pays tributes to BJP ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday paid his tributes to BJP's founding ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee on his birth anniversary, saying he dedicated his life to the making of a strong India.

In a tweet, Modi described Mookerjee, a minister in independent India's first government, as a great nationalist thinker and educationist who founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the forerunner to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

महान राष्ट्रवादी चिंतक, शिक्षाविद् और भारतीय जनसंघ के संस्थापक डॉ. श्यामा प्रसाद मुखर्जी को उनकी जन्म-जयंती पर शत-शत नमन। एक सशक्त भारतवर्ष के निर्माण के लिए उन्होंने अपना जीवन समर्पित कर दिया। उनके आदर्श और सिद्धांत देश की हर पीढ़ी को प्रेरित करते रहेंगे।

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 6, 2023

His ideals and principles will inspire every generation in the country, he said.

Born in 1901 in Calcutta, now Kolkata, Mookerjee was a well-known academician who made a mark as a politician in Bengal in the undivided India.

An early champion of repealing Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, he joined hands with the RSS to launch Jana Sangh in 1951 and is counted, along with Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, as one of the ideological beacon for the BJP.