New Delhi: Former vice president M Hamid Ansari on Sunday conferred the 25th Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award for 2020-21 on Banasthali Vidyapith, a residential institution for women in Rajasthan. The award was handed over to Siddhartha Shastri of the institution in the presence of Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.

The award, instituted in 1992 to mark the golden jubilee of the Quit India Movement, is given to an individual or institution for special contribution towards peace, communal harmony and national unity, and carries a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh and a citation.

It is presented on the birth anniversary of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

At the award ceremony, Sonia Gandhi said the ideals of communal harmony, peace and national unity have become more significant at a time the forces giving rise to hatred, division in society, bigotry and politics of bias are getting more active.

"They are also getting the support of the ruling dispensation," she alleged.

She noted that her husband Rajiv Gandhi's life came to an end in a "very cruel manner", but he made several achievements in the short time he spent in the service of the country.

"Rajiv Gandhi's political career was finished in a brutal manner but he achieved many milestones in that short time. He was very sensitive towards the diversity of the country," she said.

Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated at a poll campaign rally in 1991.

Sonia Gandhi said the empowerment of women was very dear to Rajiv Gandhi and was always on his thoughts and that is why he gave 33 per cent representation to women in panchayati raj institutions.

His government also lowered the age of voting to 18 years from 21 years, she said.

"There is a saying that if you educate a man, you only educate one individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate an entire family and generation," she noted, while lauding the stellar role played by Banasthali Vidyapith in fulfilling the dreams of Rajiv Gandhi.

LIVE: Felicitation ceremony of the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavna Award at Jawahar Bhawan, New Delhi. https://t.co/GN5gWgMfkr — Congress (@INCIndia) August 20, 2023

In his address, Kharge said these days many are trying to underplay the achievements of Rajiv Gandhi.

He said Rajiv Gandhi received the biggest-ever mandate of 401 Lok Sabha seats but gave equal importance to all, including the opposition, and even the party which at the time had only won two seats in Lok Sabha.

Kharge also said that during Rajiv Gandhi's tenure as prime minister, several key bills were passed after proper discussion, unlike today when bills are passed without any discussion and after terming them money bills to avoid scrutiny of Rajya Sabha.

Ansari said the award is given for outstanding contribution towards promotion of communal harmony, national integration and peace.

"These objectives are interlinked and the diversity and complexity of good citizenship requires a pledge to work for the emotional oneness and harmony of all the people of India regardless of caste, region, religion, or language and to resolve all differences among them through dialogue and constitutional means without resorting to violence," he said.

"Social harmony in our vast, plural society emanates from, and effects, all segments and all ages. The foremost amongst them is the segmentation on the basis of sex, between men and women. It is natural, it is obvious, but for this reason taken for granted; so are its prejudices often referred to as patriarchy," Ansari noted.

Siddhartha Shastri of Banasthali Vidyapith said the institution was set up in 1935 from a modest beginning of five girl students in mud huts by Pandit Hiralal Shastri, a freedom fighter who went on to become Rajasthan's first chief minister.

It is now imparting education to more than 15,000 girl students from nursery to doctoral levels.