President, PM pay tributes to Rajiv Gandhi on birth anniv

   New Delhi, Aug 20 (PTI) Indian President Pratibha Patil
 and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday led the nation in
 paying floral tributes to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi
 on his 67th birth anniversary.
   Patil and Singh, along with several union ministers, paid
 floral tributes to Gandhi at Vir Bhumi amid playing of morning
 ragas.
   At a separate function, the Prime Minister, along with
 Lok Sabha (lower house of Indian Parliament) Speaker Meira
 Kumar, Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj and others, paid
 floral tributes at the portrait of Rajiv Gandhi in the Central
 Hall of Parliament House.
   While Rajiv Gandhi's son and Congress General Secretary
 Rahul Gandhi was also present on the occasion, his wife and
 United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi was
 conspicuous by her absence as she is away in the US,
 recuperating after undergoing an operation recently.
   Among others who paid floral tributes to Rajiv Gandhi
 in Parliament House were Union ministers, MPs and former MPs,
 Secretaries-General of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, T K
 Viswanathan and V K Agnihotri respectively also paid floral tributes.