Statue of Bhoodan Movement's first donor must be installed at Tank Bund
Hyderabad: Mahadev Vidrohi, Managing Trustee of Akhil Bharat Sarvodaya Mandali, has appealed to the government to install the statue of Vedire Ramachandra Reddy, who was the first landowner to donate for the Bhoodan movement. He spoke with the national president of the Mandali, Vedire Arvind Reddy, at the Bashir Bagh Deshoddaraka Bhavan on Sunday. He requested that Ramachandra Reddy's life story be included in textbooks so that future generations know his history.
Similarly, he appealed to the state government to recommend to the central government to award him the 'Padma Vibhushan'. He appealed to CM Revanth Reddy to officially celebrate his birth anniversary and death anniversary.
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Time of India
5 days ago
- Time of India
City's Green Space Gets A Welcome Addition
New Delhi: Lieutenant governor VK Saxena and chief minister Rekha Gupta jointly inaugurated the redeveloped Sadbhavana Park, a grand addition to north Delhi's green urban spaces, on Tuesday. Parallel to the Walled City on Mahatma Gandhi Marg, Sadbhavana Park is spread across 11 acres of redeveloped green space. Intended to emphasise geometrical forms and designed as a formal garden to balance the gardens in the Samadhi complex on the east side of Ring Road, Sadbhavana Park will provide open recreational avenues to citizens, especially those living in Daryaganj and nearby old Delhi localities. Chandni Chowk MP Praveen Khandelwal, chief secretary Dharmendra, and senior officers from Delhi Development Authority were also present at the inauguration. The key features of the park are the chariot fountains, baradari, sculpture fountains, formal lawns and the shaded eating plaza. According to officials, the park has white marble pathways and sculptures contrasting with the linear green areas divided into lawns and low-maintenance plantation zones, which provide a sense of grandeur. A sculpture of five white horses driven by a sarathi, set in a circular water pond with fountains, adorns the park as a unique feature in Delhi's landscape. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Villas For Sale in Dubai Might Surprise You Dubai villas | search ads Get Deals Undo Additionally, four magnificent sculptures of Yakshinis, crafted by Sudarshan Sahoo, a Padma Vibhushan-winning sculptor, have been installed within the linear lawns. These artworks enhance the park's beauty and offer a serene space for people to relax. A clock tower, currently under construction, will further enhance the park's aesthetic appeal. A food van, proposed to be opened near the parking, will attract visitors and enhance their leisure experience. At the inauguration on Tuesday, LG and CM planted moulsari saplings at the centre of the baradari. Other officers planted the Pride of India saplings along the designed pathways. The plantation of these trees and saplings will contribute not only to the beauty of the area but also contribute to air quality and ecological balance for the benefit of the community. Delhi Development Authority said in a statement that white balloons were released into the sky as a symbol of Sadbhavana (goodwill). "Under the consistent guidance of LG, the Sadbhavana Park was conceptualised as part of a scheme to decongest the Kartavya Path lawns. It is a part of a larger landscape redevelopment project comprising three parks along Mahatma Gandhi Road. The project aims to become a vibrant urban hub where visitors can immerse themselves in nature while enjoying the amenities of a well-maintained park," the statement said. Kranti Udyan, the first park in the series, was inaugurated in Jan. Sadbhavana Park, the second, followed five months later. The scheme integrates a green belt spread over a 35-acre area, running around 1.7km in length along Ring Road.
The Print
6 days ago
- The Print
From Brutus to hero—How former Sikkim CM Dorjee's image changed in state's history
Sidhu was a well-connected IPS officer. He was the son-in-law of then Foreign Affairs Minister Swaran Singh under Indira Gandhi when he took up his posting in Gangtok in 1973 as the head of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). Sidhu noted that Gandhi's approach to foreign policy was quite different from that of her father, and by this time, Jawaharlal Nehru's key foreign policy and intelligence advisers, TN Kaul and BN Mullik, had given way to Kewal Singh and RN Kao, masters in the strategic game. But the most significant factor was the forceful personality of Indira Gandhi. In fact, Sidhu states clearly in the Preface that one of the reasons he wrote the book was to resurrect the reputation of Dorjee, who had led the movement for democracy in Sikkim. After spending years in political wilderness in Kalimpong ( where I met him both as SDO of Kalimpong and later as the CEO of Himul Milk Project), he received the Padma Vibhushan – India's second highest civilian award in 2002 and the Sikkim Ratan in 2004. If Datta Ray's book Smash and Grab: Annexation of Sikkim had portrayed the Kazi Lhendup Dorjee as the ungrateful Brutus who betrayed the trust of the Chogyal to become the first Chief Minister of the new state, GBS Sidhu's book Sikkim: Dawn of Democracy reversed the stand. After India's decisive military victory of 1971, which changed the cartography of South Asia, she was determined to assert India's role as the dominant regional power. The UN recognition of Bhutan took her by surprise, and the foreign office got quite an earful as India was not consulted on this move. Sidhu highlights Chogyal's antipathy toward his Nepali subjects – whom he felt were outsiders, but by then they were 75 per cent of the population. The more he supported the claims of Bhutias and Lepchas as the first inhabitants of Sikkim, the greater was the anti-Chogyal feeling in the majority community. This was also the key point stressed by BS Das, in his book The Sikkim Saga (1984), the Administrator of Sikkim present along with Sidhu during the period of turmoil. According to Das, had the Chogyal accepted the peaceful transition to adult franchise with a Nepali majority assembly and accepted the position of a constitutional head with symbolic powers per the 1973 arrangements of Sikkim as an Associate state of India, the applecart might not have been rocked. However, Das also admits that there was a lack of ground-level coordination among the different agencies of the government of India. There's also Sikkim: Requiem for a Himalayan Kingdom by the Scotsman Andrew Duff (2015), who was trying to trace his grandfather's travel to the Sikkim Himalayas undertaken over a century ago. He had access to the weekly letters of the Scottish Headmistresses of the Paljor Namgyal Girls' school in Gangtok. Both Martha Hamilton and Isabel Ritchie had maintained their journal, and also wrote regularly to their family in Scotland. These letters and journal entries give a first-hand, contemporaneous account of the events in Gangtok from 1959 to 1975, including the fairytale marriage celebrations of the Chogyal with Hope Cooke. Of course, the perspective is largely that of the royal palace, as the missionaries were often invited to dine with the royal family and shared some of their confidences. However, to be fair to Duff, he also gives the viewpoint of the other dramatis personae, including Kazi Saheb, in his narrative. In Kolkata, at a literature festival in 2016, I spoke to Duff. The focus of the book is not political – but the major events do find a fair coverage in its pages. Also read: Sikkim's accession to India has 6 stories. And 3 strong-willed women India's 22nd state In 2021, Ambassador Preet Mohan Singh Malik, who had been posted in Sikkim in the late 1960s, penned his memoirs under the title Sikkim: A History of Intrigue and Alliance in 2021. He delves deep into history and has a keen interest in historical reasoning. Even before listing the contents, he quotes professor and former Ambassador of India to China KM Panikkar: 'But a nation can neglect geography only at its peril.' The thesis advanced in the book is that India under Nehru neglected 'geography'. But in hindsight, Panikkar too can be accused of giving a clean chit to the Chinese Communist Party's 'imperial ambitions' concerning the non-Han nationalities. In fact, Nehru's China policy was shaped, over and above the protestations of the Secretary General of the foreign office, Girja Shankar Bajpai, by the dispatches from Panikkar, who was, in many ways, a fellow traveller. The 18 chapters are divided into three parts: Britain, Tibet and Sikkim; Britain and its perfidious dealings with Tibet; and India, Tibet, and Sikkim. Malik combines insights into the erstwhile kingdom's unique history with the intriguing story of how Sikkim became India's 22nd state. He examines the often-fraught relationship between the Lepchas (Rongpas) — its original inhabitants — and the Bhutias, people of Tibetan origin who established institutions of religion and governance, and founded the Namgyal dynasty that ruled Sikkim until it became a part of the Indian Union. He also traces the clash of both with the Nepali settlers who would eventually form the majority. Last, but not least, let us look at a book written by Biraj Adhikari, an insider: Sikkim: The Wounds of History (2010). As his name suggests, Adhikari is a Sikkimese of Nepali origin. He was a school-going teenager when he had to learn a new national anthem and salute a new flag. He writes about the dilemma of talking about the 'merger' in public, while calling it an 'annexation' in private conversation. Adhikari is not an apologist for the Chogyal either – he points out that for all his pretensions of sovereignty, the Chogyal always held an Indian passport. Adhikari blames the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi for describing the 1956 Chogyal trip to New Delhi as a 'state visit', and playing the Sikkim National Anthem on his ceremonial arrival. His book talks about the multiple dilemmas faced by his generation. Are Sikkimese full-fledged Indians, especially in the context of 371 F? Well, even though Sikkimese have all the privileges of Indian citizenship, what about Indians living in Sikkim? They are denied several privileges reserved for Sikkim state subjects—preferential access to education, employment and land rights and exemption from the payment of income tax. As Sikkim grows at a double-digit pace, it would certainly attract many more non-Sikkimese Indians, and a demographic change of a magnitude similar to the one in the latter half of the 19th century may be in the offing. And if demography is indeed destiny, then those currently enjoying the privileges of being Sikkim state subjects may resist the extension of similar rights to the rest of their countrymen. Adhikari tried his hand in the democratic polity of Sikkim—but was always second in the hustings. However, he was always an influential voice in Sikkim poetics – having been associated with Sikkim National Congress, Sikkim National Peoples Party, and Hamro Sikkim. But he hopes for a closure to the apprehensions which many people in this state, with a fragile demography, are legitimately concerned with. One hopes that this extended essay gives us an insight not just into the facts of the case, but also about the multiple perspectives that shape our understanding of the events in the past. History, as they say, is always in the making. Sanjeev Chopra is a former IAS officer and Festival Director of Valley of Words. Until recently, he was director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. He tweets @ChopraSanjeev. Views are personal. (Edited by Ratan Priya)
Hindustan Times
29-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Who is Jonas Masetti, Brazilian Vedic teacher walked barefoot to receive Padma Shri
A Brazilian acharya, Jonas Masetti, who founded the Vishva Vidya Gurukulam in the country, was conferred the Padma Shri award by President Droupadi Murmu. The Vedic guru accepted the honour, wearing a white dhoti, tilak, and barefoot. "I was not expecting this. It's a great honour... Many people in Brazil are studying Vedanta, and this is an honour not just for me but also for our family, who are striving for this tradition," he told the news agency ANI. The guru, also known as Acharya Vishvanath, met the Prime Minister in Brazil last year after he attended the G20 Summit and witnessed his group present glimpses of the Ramayan in Sanskrit. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Masetti said that he worked as a mechanical engineer with top companies in Brazil but left"empty" and sought to understand the 'meaning of life', he told ANI. His search led him to learn about Vedic culture, and he travelled to Swami Dayananda's ashram in Tamil Nadu. After spending time there, he said he decided to return home and spread the message of the Vedas in Brazil. "There are so many teachers in India that a Westerner doesn't need to come here and teach their own culture. I see a lot of youngsters losing the opportunity to value their culture and being so enchanted by the Western way of thinking", he said. Now, he runs an institute called 'Vishwavidya' in Brazil where he uses technology to propagate his message through regular online programmes. PM Modi had earlier revealed that, through his 'Free Open Course,' Masetti taught Vedic values to more than 1.5 lakh students in seven years. President Droupadi Murmu conferred Padma Awards at Rashtrapati Bhawan, with PM Modi and other dignitaries in attendance. Justice (Retd.) J.S. Khehar received the Padma Vibhushan for Public Affairs. Posthumous Padma Vibhushan awards went to folk singer Sharda Sinha and dancer Kumudini Lakhia. Padma Bhushan recipients included Dr. Shobana Chandrakumar (folk dance), Sadhvi Ritambhara (social work), and economist Bibek Debroy (Literature & Education), whose family members accepted on their behalf.
