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.
Marking a shift from its earlier high-profile annual NRI meets, the Punjab government has decided to opt for a comparatively low-profile events for the diaspora early next year.
It was a bone-chilling day across northern India Sunday, as Jammu and Kashmir's Leh recorded its coldest temperature at minus 17 degrees Celsius and Delhi saw the season's coldest day at 2.6 degrees.
As intense cold swept across Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, the minimum temperatures at most places were recorded between two and four degrees Celsius, weather officials said Sunday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday hailed Guru Gobind Singh on his birth anniversary Sunday and said he epitomized "ultimate courage" and the spirit of sacrifice.
India Saturday asked Pakistan to hand over the "country's most wanted" and 1993 Mumbai blasts' mastermind Dawood Ibrahim, while the Congress said it was time for the Narendra Modi government to "walk the talk" and sought to know what it had done so far.
