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NEW DELHI, Nov 8: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was.....more
Kant donates salary for NEW DELHI, Nov 8: Vice-President Krishan Kant has donated.....more
NEW DELHI, Nov 8: Pope John Paul II was given a warm send....more |
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NEW DELHI, Nov 8: Tourism Minister Uma Bharti today assured the Travel Industry that urgent action would be taken on the demands of the sector which include visa on arrival for tourists, benefits under 80 HHC to tour operators and removal of service tax.......more RSS, VHP
flay NEW DELHI, Nov 8: The RSS and VHP today criticised Pope John Paul II for his exhortation to Asian bishops to spread Christianity across the continent and said they .........more Stanley reservoir METTUR, Nov 8: The Stanley reservoir across the river Cauvery at....more Rich
tributes paid to AJMER, Nov 8: Rich tributes were paid to Swami Dayananda...more Moves towards formation RANCHI, Nov 8: This tribal belt of Bihar is keenly....more |
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NEW DELHI, Nov 8: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was among the first persons to greet Home Minister L K Advani on his 72nd birthday today. Vajpayee who greeted Advani at the latter’s residence presented a bouquet of flowers and wished him long and healthy life. Among others who wished the Home Minister included senior BJPleaders and workers. (PTI) |
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Kant donates salary for cyclone victims NEW DELHI, Nov 8: Vice-President Krishan Kant has donated one month’s salary to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund to help provide relief to the cyclone-affected people of Orissa, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. Kant, who is also the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, has called upon the members of the Upper House to donate generously for the purpose, an official release said here today. In this moment of tragedy, it is our duty to join the collective national effort to alleviate the suffering of our affected brothers and sisters, the Vice President said. (PTI) |
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NEW DELHI, Nov 8: Pope John Paul II was given a warm send off here this morning as he left for Georgia after a three-day state visit, during which he lauded the religious tolerance in India, called for fruitful dialogue between different faiths and stoutly defended conversions. The 79-year old temporal head of Vatican, who arrived at the Palam air base in a motorcade, was seen off among others by Minister of State for External Affairs Ajit Panja, Foreign Secretary K Raghunath, officials and church leaders. Panja presented the pontiff with an album containing photographs taken during his stay in the country and a book Calcutta, a compilation of photographs by Raghu Singh. A visibly cheerful Pope looked back twice midway through the stairs and waved at media persons and others before he boarded ‘Narmada’, the chartered Air-India flight, which sported the flags of the holy see and India. He was wearing his customary cassock with a skull cap. Panja later told PTI the visit went off very well and the Vatican has expressed satisfaction about it. Though some people made some statements, good sense prevailed on all of them, he said referring to the campaign by some Sangh Parivar outfits demanding a Papal apology for alleged atrocities by the church in the past, ahead of the Pope’s visit, his second to India after 1986. Armed guards were lined up all along the route to the airport. Security personnel heaved a sigh of relief as the visit passed off peacefully barring some abortive attempts by handful of Shiv Sena workers to stage protests. During his meetings with President K R Narayanan, Vice-President Krishan Kant and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the head of the Catholic Church appreciated the religious freedom and tolerance in India. While he skirted the issues of conversions and attacks on Christians in the country in his talks with the Indian leadership, he made a veiled attack on some Sangh Parivar outfits at an inter-religious meet here yesterday saying, no group had the right to control anyone’s convictions. Religious freedom constitutes the very heart of human rights. Its inviolability is such that individuals must be recognised as having the right to even change their religion, if their conscience so demands, he said without directly referring to the Parivar’s campaign against conversions. The pontiff told Indian religious leaders including the Shankaracharya of Prayag Mutt, Swami Madhavanand Saraswati, that the Catholic Church wanted to enter ever more deeply into a dialogue with other religions of the world. Addressing a holy mass at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the Pope placed before the Indian religious leaders, his hope and dream that the next century will be a time for fruitful dialogue leading to new relationship of understanding and solidarity among followers of all religions. During his brief visit, the Pope neither apologised for the alleged atrocities by the church in Goa and other parts of the country during portuguese rule, as demanded by some Sangh Parivar outfits, nor did he make any announcements about the much-awaited beatification of Mother Teresa, though he fondly remembered and praised her. An important pastoral engagement of the Pope during his visit was the formal conclusion of the Asian synod of bishops, which was convened by the Vatican to discuss the challenges before the Catholic community in the coming century. Addressing the bishop at the sacred heart cathedral here, the head of the church asked them to make Ever greater efforts to spread christianity across Asia. In presenting the fruit of the synod’s work in the post-synodal apostolic exhortation, ecclesia in Asia’ (the Church in Asia), you the bishops are being asked to make ever greater efforts to spread the gospel of salvation throughout the length and breadth of the human geography of Asia. At the holy mass too, the Pope prayed that the Christian faith may be firmly planted on the soil of Asia in the third Christian millennium, like it did in Europe in the first millennium and America and Africa in the second millennium. The Pope also paid homage to the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, at his Samadhi at Rajghat on the first day of his visit, which had generated a lot of controversies. In the run up to the visit, some Sangh Parivar outfits and the church had traded charges against each other on varied issues including conversions, foreign funding, missionary activities and insurgency in the North-East. Sanskriti Raksha Manch, a parivar outfit, took out a 1600-km Yatra’ (march) from Goa to Delhi to create awareness about the atrocities committed by the church, while another tribal outfit, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram staged a sit-in here during the Pope’s visit to draw his attention to the objectionable activities of the church. (PTI) |
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Tour operators delegation meets Uma Bharti NEW DELHI, Nov 8: Tourism Minister Uma Bharti today assured the Travel Industry that urgent action would be taken on the demands of the sector which include visa on arrival for tourists, benefits under 80 HHC to tour operators and removal of service tax. The Minister was speaking to a delegation from the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) which called on her to a present a cheque of Rs 6.13 lakh as contribution to the Kargil Relief Fund. An IATO release said Ms Bharti had given her assurance that action would be taken on the suggestions made by the body to enhance tourism in the country. On the occasion, IATO president Subhash Goyal offered to adopt a village in Orissa to provide help to the cyclone-affected people. A voluntary team from IATO will be assisting in the relief operations in the State. (UNI) |
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Rich tributes paid to Swami Dayananda Saraswati AJMER, Nov 8: Rich tributes were paid to Swami Dayananda Saraswati here on his death anniversary yesterday. At a function organised at the place where the founder of the Arya Samaj breathed his last, speakers recalled Swami Dayananda’s contributions in removing dogmas. Bhajans were sung on the occasion. (PTI) |
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Moves towards formation of new state awaited RANCHI, Nov 8: This tribal belt of Bihar is keenly watching whether the National Democratic Alliance would stick to its assurance by introducing in the next Parliament session the Bihar State Reorganisation Bill 1998, seeking creation of Vananchal. Any further delay on this front may force the opposition, barring the Rashtriya Janata Dal, to revive their movement for statehood. The Jharkhand named parties have called upon the people to be prepared for a decisive fight if the creation of the new state was not conceptualised in the Winter session. The formation of this new state has also been strongly supported by the Bahujan Samaj Party, trying to make inroads in the regional politics riding on the fancied statehood issue. BSP supremo Kanshi Ram who was here on November 6 assured the party’s support to the issue and said his party would back the Bihar State Reorganisation Bill when brought in Parliament by the NDA in the Winter session. The Samata Party senior leader and Union Surface Transport Minister Nitish Kumar reiterating his party’s committment to Vananchal said his party would like the state to be created at the earliest while the Bharatiya Janata Party MPs have promised that the legislation would be brought in the Winter session. Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha had said during a party workers’ meeting in Hazaribagh recently that the Vananchal state would be a reality soon as the Centre planned to bring the State Reorganisation Bill in the Winter session which would commence on November 29. The Congress said that it would not allow the Government to play with the sentiments of over 30 million people of Jharkhand and would have to take up the issue during the coming session. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is all set to revive its movement for Jharkhand if the state was not realised this year. Even the Jharkhand Peoples’ Party which had supported the Bharatiya Janata Party in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections has called upon the Government to stand by its committment and intiate steps for Vananchal without any further delay. (UNI) |
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