Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the constitution of two committees for the commemoration of the birth centenary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay.
The Prime Minister will chair a 149 member National Committee, and the Home Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh, will chair a 23 member Executive Committee.
The members of the National Committee include former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Smt. Sushma Swaraj, Shri Arun Jaitley, Manohar Parrikar, former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, and BJP President Amit Shah.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, former Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Rajya Sabha MP Sharad Yadav, Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev, Lyricist Prasoon Joshi, Film Director Chandraprakash Dwivedi, former Hockey player Dhanraj Pillai, former Badminton player and coach Pullela Gopichand, and Founder of Sulabh International Bindeshwar Pathak have been included in the National Committee. Former Chief Justice of India R C Lahoti, Retired Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswami, Constitutional Expert Subhash Kashyap, and Environmentalist C.P. Bhatt have also been included in the National Committee.
The committee includes several Governors, Chief Ministers, Scientists, Journalists, Academicians, Social Workers and Spiritual Leaders.