Central secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Akhil Bharatiya Sewa Pramukh of the Parishad, Sitaram Agrawal passed away at his hometown in Kota on November 3. He was 85. He is survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters.
Born on March 16, 1924 at Oraiya town of Itava district in Uttar Pradesh, Sitaramji lived a meaningful life bringing joy to so many faces, especially the needy people in remote areas of the country. He was fully conscious till his last breath and satisfied that he tried to do his bit for the welfare of the needy brethren. He also participated in the freedom movement and latter became a swayamsevak in 1943. He became a Pracharak in 1947 and was sent to Mainpuri. He went to jail during the first ban on the RSS in 1948 and remained in the jail for six months. Later he started the VHP unit in Kota in 1967.
As Akhil Bharatiya Sewa Pramukh of the VHP he functioned from the VHP headquarters in New Delhi and toured the whole country. Inspired by Shri Ashok Singhal, he led the establishment of vast and growing network of 4,200 VHP service projects all over the country. He served VHP’s service projects for about 25 years.
Paying tribute to Sitaramji the VHP president Shri Ashok Singhal described Sitaramji as a true deenbandhu, a friend of poor and downtrodden. “His watch-word was-“in the land of Jagannath and Vishwanath (Lord of the Universe), nobody should remain anaath (orphan). He was a true deenbandhu (friend of the poor) and a role model for all our Sewa workers. During his illustrious lifetime, he even inspired like-minded people and others to patronise sewa activities of the VHP,” Shri Singhal said.
In his tribute Shri Champat Rai, joint organising secretary of the VHP, said: “A chemical engineer from HBTI-Kanpur by training but a social engineer by choice and passion, Sitaramji was a man of culture and had great empathy with the underprivileged, oppressed and ignored, especially among the remote Vanavasi areas and deeply cared for their all round welfare.”
(FOC)
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