(Image source from: })

BJP-led NDA government has decided to give a place of pride to other political icons including Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Ram Manohar Lohia, Jaiprakash Narayan, B R Ambedkar, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Deen Dayal Upadhyay and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad through postage stamps. Till now the Congress has ensured that only the Gandhi family is honoured through postage stamps. The government is also considering a commemorative stamp on the legendary Communist leader Bhupesh Gupta on the occasion of his birth centenary year.

The new list of names for stamps was decided at a meeting chaired by communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, where the government has decided on including poet Rabindranath Tagore, social reformer Swami Vivekananda, poet Subramaniya Bharathi, freedom fighter Shaheed Bhagat Singh and three legendary musicians -Ravi Shankar, Bhimsen Joshi and M S Subhalakshmi.

Some of the icons to feature in the commemorative stamps will also include singers Geeta Dutt, Mohammad Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Talat Mehmood, Manna Dey, Mukesh and some of them from the southern states, painters Nandalal Bose and Raja Ravi Varma, dancer Rukmani Devi Arundale and writers Prem Chand, Maithili Sharan Gupta and Dinkar.

By Premji