Baba Ramdev, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Say No To Padma Award
Darpan News Desk IANS, 24 Jan, 2015 03:08 PM
Yoga guru Ramdev and spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Saturday declined to accept Padma awards, saying the honour could be given to someone else.
Ramdev declined the Padma Vibhushan - India's second highest civilian award - saying that while he was grateful for being chosen for the honour it should be given to someone else and not a "sanyasi".
In a letter to union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, he said he was grateful that the central government thought of his name, which he got to know from media reports, but the honour could be given to some other great person.
"I am a 'sanyasi' and want to serve the country without expecting anything," he said, adding that a recluse must remain the same while he is honoured or disrespected.
"I urge you to give this honour to somebody doing something great. I would be grateful to you," he said.
Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar also declined to accept the Padma award, saying it could be given to someone else.
The world renowned spiritual guru posted on Twitter that Rajnath Singh called him to inform about it but he declined to accept the award.
According to a statement issued by Art of Living in Bengaluru late Saturday, Ravi Shankar told Rajnath Singh over phone: "I thank the government for considering me for the Padma award. There are many other deserving people. Instead of me, I would like them to honour someone else."
The 59-year-old spiritual guru founded Art of Living in 1981 as an NGO for educational and humanitarian projects with a special focus on stress management.
The organisation operates in 152 countries the world over, benefitting about 370 million people worldwide.
Bullet trains are set to become a reality in India with the first service between Mumbai and Ahmedabad as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government sought to run Indian Railways - one of the world's largest - like a "commercial enterprise but serve like a welfare organization".
The increasing seizures of drugs, especially heroin, in recent years shows that Punjab has emerged as a major transit point for those in the illegal drugs trade. But the state itself, facing a worrying drugs menace, is hooked to pharmaceutical intoxicants.
Among the subtle changes associated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government are those dealing with the media and nowhere has it affected a news-hungry media's working more than in the way news sources from the government have completely dried up and resulted in shrinking of the culture of intermittent Breaking News on television.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Monday said he will again meet Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and urge her to expedite the process of bringing back 39 Punjabis trapped in the Mosul region of conflict affected Iraq.
British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne Monday said it was exciting to visit India when the excitement about the Indian economy and the optimism about the prospects for future growth are palpable.
