September, 2026

     Glowing tributes were paid to the memory of Feroze Gandhi, the Founder President of Feroze Gandhi College, Rae Bareli and an outstanding Parliamentarian, on his 114th birth anniversary on 12.09.2026 by the Management, Principal, teachers,
retired Principals and teachers and non- teaching staff, invited guests and the students of the College.

     The programme was graced by the distinguished presence of Er. S.L. Chandwani, President, Shri Rajeev Bhargava, Senior Vice President, Er. Atul Bhargava, Managing Secretary and Dr. Sanjay Kumar Pandey, Joint Secretary of the Managing Committee, Prof. Manoj Kumar Tripathi, Principal, Dr. Ram Bahadur Verma and Dr. Adarsh Kumar, both former Principals, Dr. B.B. Awasthi, former Member, State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority, Shri Gaurav Awasthi, journalist and former Bureau Chief, Hindustan and Members of the Management.

     All the guests and the members of the audience were welcomed by the Principal, Prof. Manoj Kumar Tripathi. The Managing Secretary, Er. Atul Bhargava spoke eloquently about the institutional values and visions of the Founder President, Feroze Gandhi and the Founder Managing Secretary, Onkar Nath Bhargava, which have sustained and nurtured the College over the last 66 years since its foundations were laid in the year 1960. The Senior Vice President of the Managing Committee, Shri Rajeeva Bhargava threw light on the close association between Feroze Gandhi and Onkar Nath Bhargava in establishing Feroze Gandhi College and said that the outstanding academic achievements of the Faculty Members and the students are the best tributes to the memory of the Founder President and Founder Managing Secretary. The Joint Secretary of the Managing Committee, Dr. Sanjay Kumar Pandey exhorted the teachers to continuously strive for the fulfilment of the noble ideals of the teaching profession.

     Delivering his address as the distinguished speaker, Prof. U.B. Singh, Professor and Head, Department of Sociology expressed the view that Faroze Gandhi, by his very nature and ideological disposition, was a trail blazer and a crusader for truth. He rose above the name and fame and position of the family into which he was married to assume the role of the first whistle blower in the Parliament in independent India. His thoughts and actions were similar to the concerns expressed by Jawahar Lal Nehru and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar who had warned the country of the dangers of the personality cult and hero worship in the nascent democracy. Feroze Gandhi proved to be loyal to the nation and the people and not to any particular political leader or political party. He had the courage and the guts to expose the Dalmia and Mundra scams and thereby unveil the unholy nexus between politicians, bureaucrats and crony capitalists. He proved to be a true representative of the common citizens of the country and a Parliamentarian relevant beyond the limits of his time.

     Speaking as the Chief Guest and the keynote speaker of the programme, Dr. R.B. Verma, former Principal of the College, described the courage of conviction as the defining trait of Feroze Gandhi’s political persona. He said that it was the courage of conviction that enabled Feroze Gandhi to expose the cases of corruption and irregularities in managing public money committed by certain industrialists at a time when the entire system worked not on any legally binding regulatory mechanism but on the faith in the values and ideals of early years of post independence era. Even in the face of the towering personality of a leader like Jawaharlal Nehru, Feroze Gandhi fearlessly raised issues of public interest in the Lok Sabha and educated the people on the importance of the culture of dissent, discussion and debate for sustaining Parliamentary democracy in India.

     Five students of the College- Shreya Yadav of B.Ed. Programme, Surabhi Patel of M.A. (Sanskrit) Programme, Deepti of M.A. (Psychology) Programme, Divyanshi Maurya of M.A. (Economics) Programme and Arti Nirmal of M.A. (Psychology) Programme, who had received Gold Medals on the basis of the results of the University of Lucknow Examinations, June, 2026 at the 69th Convocation of the University of Lucknow held on 31.07.2026, were honoured with O.N. Bhargava Memorial Citations of Merit 2026- 27 in the programme. Shri Shailendra Tripathi, Coordinator, IQAC of the College read out the Citations of Merit.

     Delivering his Presidential address, the President of the Managing Committee, Er. S.L. Chandwani reminded the audience of the high values, ideals and norms of democratic functioning, set by Feroze Gandhi and other founding fathers for the political and public life of the country in the initial years of freedom. In the end, Prof. B.D. Mishra, Vice Principal of the College proposed a vote of thanks for everyone present. The function was conducted by Dr. Santosh Pandey, Assistant Professor, Department of Hindi with appreciable articulation.