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"My particular respect to your
foundation and its work in the spirit of Gandhi, whose thoughts and deeds are of burning topicality." Richard von Weizsäcker (President of Fed. Rep. of Germany 1984-1994) more |
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Last update: Thursday - March 2, 2006
'Mahatma among great leaders in history'Deccan Herald - India US President George W Bush today said Mahatma Gandhi was among the great leaders of history for his contribution to all mankind. Bush, along with his wife Laura, paid floral tributes to the father of the nation at his memorial in Rajghat, located on the banks of river Yamuna. During his 10-minutes stay at Rajghat, Bush was briefed about the memorial by noted Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande and other members of the Gandhi Samiti. "I am grateful to have the opportunity to honour Mahatma Gandhi at this sacred site. His life was an inspiration to people and the world, and his contribution to all mankind place him among the great leaders of history," the US President wrote on the visitor's book at the Rajghat. Bush drove down to the memorial of the Mahatma after a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. As the US President was showering rose petals on the memorial, two helicopters, one believed to be an American, were hovering over the Rajghat as part of the security drill. The entire memorial had been turned into a fortess with Commissioner of Delhi Police K K Paul overseeing the security arrangements himself. What Bush wrote at Rajghat Rediff - India - by A Ganesh Nadar US President George W Bush and Laura Bush paid homage at Mahatma Gandhi's samadhi on Thursday morning. This is what President Bush wrote in the visitors' book at Rajghat: I am grateful for the opportunity to honour Mahatma Gandhi at this sacred site. His life was an inspiration to people around the world and his contributions to all mankind place him among the great leaders of history. Signed George W Bush The American President did not mention his designation in the vistors' book. The wreath he placed at the Mahatma's memorial merely said President Bush and Laura Bush What President Bush's father, George H W Bush, then US vice-president, wrote in the visitors' book when he visited Rajghat in 1984: It has been a moving experience to honour the memory of a man who has been an inspiration to justice and peace. The message of Mahatma Gandhi still reverberates in the US as it does in India and other nations around the world. Gandhi family struggling to live up to a ‘superhuman’ legacy The Peninsula - Quatar Mumbai: What does it mean to be a descendant of Mahatma Gandhi? Very tough, say the grand and great grandchildren of the father of the nation. The 54 direct descendants of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, or Mahatma Gandhi as he was known, have faithfully stood by the values and principles the grand patriarch spent a lifetime sowing in the Indian psyche. Yet, in the face of incredible pressure from a society that expects unblemished character in them - owing to their heritage - they say they are just human. “I was eight when I last interacted with Bapuji. Though I do not claim to be exactly what he would have wanted me to be, I, in my own way, try to contribute to society,” said Usha Gokani, one of Gandhi’s granddaughters. “It is said that we acquire human life after several tests and tribulations. And then to be born as Bapuji’s descendant is the biggest deliverance,” Usha told IANS. Usha, the second daughter of Gandhi’s third son Ramdas and Nirmala, works for an educational NGO, Kasturba Sevashram, in south Gujarat and claims to gain immense satisfaction from her activities. “Trust becomes an automatic ingredient of my relationship with people. People expect, respect and look up to you. But I know for myself that I cannot be (Mahatma) Gandhi. So I do what the person Usha can!” she said energetically. One of the descendants best known to the current generation of Indians is Tushar Gandhi - the grandson of Gandhi’s second son Manilal and Sushila. Tushar, the son of Manilal’s second son Arun and Sunanda, is managing trustee of the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation, a city-based organisation involved in preserving Gandhi relics and copyrights. Donning the role of being the public face of the Gandhi family with confidence and restraint, Tushar said: “There are some of us who are not able to cope with the pressure of people’s expectations and try to suppress their identities as a Gandhi. “The public must realise that we are normal human beings with all the attached shortcomings and weaknesses. I do carry certain values and principles that he earmarked for us. But I cannot be (Mahatma) Gandhi. “So I usually ignore unnecessary importance given to my Gandhi identity. Thanks to the way I was brought up, I am able to handle my individuality without diluting the respect for Bapu.” Illuminating the predicament of the family, Tushar narrated an incident when a journalist interviewed him in a Chinese restaurant. An innocuous query regarding beef and pork in the restaurant’s menu card was later published as “Gandhi’s great grandson seeks beef and pork”. Tushar is forthright in admitting that he carries a lot of anger towards Nathuram Godse, the man who shot dead Gandhi Jan 30, 1948, in New Delhi. Tushar reminisced: “I was very young when my grandmother asked me to visit Gopal Godse (Nathuram’s brother and a co-conspirator) in Pune after his release from jail. I didn’t approve of the meeting. “I felt the same way when he came to visit us in Mumbai although my anger was more towards Nathuram.” The fourth generation of the Gandhi family feels a mixture of pride, happiness and amusement when fellow students give them a look of acknowledgement during the morning assembly on Mahatma Gandhi birthday celebrations Oct 2. Bush’s homage to Gandhi ‘trivial exercise’ Daily Times - Pakistan NEW DELHI: The descendants of India’s freedom icon Mahatma Gandhi said on Wednesday that plans for US President George W Bush to pay homage at a memorial to the hero were “a trivial exercise”. “Merely going to Raj Ghat doesn’t make him (Bush) a votary of peace. His faith in war and weapon supremacy is to be criticised,” Tushar A. Gandhi, a great-grandson of the Indian freedom campaigner, told AFP by phone from the western city of Mumbai. Tushar Gandhi said that though he opposed Bush’s “war policies”, he was not against the US president honouring Mahatma Gandhi, who advocated truth and non-violence in leading a fight against British colonial rule. “I think it is a good thing that Bush acknowledges that he must honour the man who stood for non-violence. “But it is a trivial exercise unless he changes his outlook,” said Tushar Gandhi, who runs the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation based in Mumbai. Tushar’s father Arun Gandhi, who is based in the US, called Bush a “warmonger”. “The only way that Bush can honor Gandhi is by ... showing greater compassion for the poor people of the world and not by laying a wreath at his memorial,” he said in a statement released by the Washington-based Institute for Public Policy. Nation's Largest Peace Group Denounces Bush Visit to Gandhi Memorial TMC - USA At a press conference at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi on Washington, DC's Embassy Row, Peace Action Education Fund earlier today denounced the plan for President George Bush to lay a memorial wreath in honor of Mohandas K. Gandhi in Rajghat, India on Thursday. Dozens gathered in front of the 15-foot high Gandhi statue, with the Indian Embassy to the U.S. as a backdrop, holding placards with a picture of Gandhi and the caption: "Gandhi Says No Nukes, No War!" (photograph available, see below) "Mahatma Gandhi was a man of peace and non-violence and lived by the Hindu principle of ahimsa, action based on refusal to do harm. As his war-strewn presidency shows, George Bush knows nothing about ahimsa and non-violence. Bush should reconsider this cynical, disrespectful display of symbolism," said Kevin Martin, Executive Director of Peace Action Education Fund. The plan for Bush to "honor" Gandhi is even more astonishing given one of the main purposes of Bush's trip -- to cement a deal for US nuclear aid to India, which would violate current US nonproliferation law and has drawn criticism from a host of peace, disarmament and non-proliferation groups. The deal will also be a tough sell to a skeptical Congress, which would need to amend US law to create a "loophole" to give nuclear technology to India because of its nuclear weapons arsenal. "Does Bush think Gandhi would bless one of the main purposes of this trip -- to promote nuclear aid to India?" asked Martin. "Gandhi abhorred nuclear weapons and would surely call for the US and India to pursue the abolition of nuclear weapons. Gandhi himself said, 'The only weapon that can save the world is non- violence.' The Bomb, he said, 'will not be destroyed by counter- bombs.' Indeed, 'hatred can be overcome only by love.'" |
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