Nagpur: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Sunday paid tributes to Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar at Deeksha Bhoomi, where the late dalit leader and architect of the Indian constitution embraced Buddhism in 1956.

Vajpayee, who was here to attend the Bharatiya Janata Party's national council session, and union home minister L K Advani, who was accompanying him, garlanded Ambedkar's bust at the Bhoomi and later paid their respects to the late leader, whose ashes are kept there in an urn.

Vajpayee, the third head of government, after Indira Gandhi and V P Singh, to visit the Deeksha Bhoomi, wrote in the visitors' book: "there is no liberty without social justice", endorsing the views of Ambedkar.

Advani wrote that "in the history of India's social transformation, this place, associated with the architect of India's constitution, has a special place".

Earlier, Vajpayee and Advani were accorded a warm welcome by the members of the Ambedkar memorial, led by its chairman R S Gavai, MP.

Gavai presented the prime minister with a shawl on behalf of the memorial committee and also submitted a memorandum urging the center to sanction Rs 1 crore to complete the remaining work on the memorial.

PTI