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.
History will be kinder to me, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated at his final press conference earlier this year. As he ends his decade-long tenure as head of two successive UPA governments, his stock as a middle class hero stood severely diminished due to a floundering economy, shrinking opportunities and the acts of omission and commission of colleagues in the government and party.
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani's skyscraper Mumbai home Antilia - named after a mythical island in the Atlantic - has been rated as the world's "most outrageously expensive property" by Forbes magazine.
The BJP plans a grand welcome for its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi when he comes to Delhi Saturday, shortlisting at least five spots for felicitating him, party sources said.
Jubilant even before the results of the Lok Sabha election are declared Friday, the BJP office in Delhi was Thursday decked up and party workers got ready with fire crackers and sweets. In contrast, relative quiet prevailed at the Congress headquarters.
After a decade at 7 Race Course Road, the official residence of the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh and his wife are ready to move into 3 Motilal Nehru Marg, a sprawling bungalow on a busy roundabout not too far from where he has been staying.
