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Dr. Ram Puniyani
addressing a Communal Harmony Program in Malegaon.
(File Photo) |
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Communal Riots in India Root cause of the problem?:
History,
unanimously asserted Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) Mumbai
Suresh Khopde, Activist Dr. Ram Puniyani and Columnist Hasan Kamal,
is exploited by a section in the country to play the politics of
hatred that result most of the time......
Read Full
Crime and No Punishment -
Malegaon
Blast Accused Get a Respite
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New Delhi: President Pratibha Patil will give away the National Communal
Harmony Awards for the years 2007 and 2008 here today.
For the year 2007,
Dr. Ram Puniyani and Setu Charitable Trust have been selected for
the award. The jury, headed by the Vice-President, selected Dr.
Puniyani in the individual category and Mumbai-based Setu Charitable
Trust for the organisation category.
Dr. Puniyani, a
former Professor at IIT, Mumbai has been spreading the message of
peace and amity through lectures, publications, workshops and
meetings and by traveling extensively to different parts of the
country dissemination messages of secularism, pluralism and communal
harmony.
Setu Charitable
Trust, Mumbai was established in the year 1994 and is engaged in the
rehabilitation of riot victims and their families and more
specially, children orphaned by communal, caste and terrorist
violence in Mumbai and in other parts of the country.
The work of the
Setu Charitable Trust in the field of community development,
mobilization and awareness building among the deprived sections of
the society, such as, poor women and underprivileged children living
in urban slums and rural areas, and rehabilitation of sexually
exploited women in Parbhani is well-known.
For the year 2008,
Dr. Dominic Emmanuel SVD and Anjuman Sair-e-Gul Faroshan have been
selected.
Dr. Emmanuel has
been working for communal harmony for the past two decades. Having a Ph.D on ‘Communication as Dialogue: Its Progressive Recognition in
Modern Christian, Academic and Broadcast Discourses’, Dr. Emmanuel
has been in the service of inter-religious dialogue.
He has been
actively involved in resolving conflicts/differences between
different communities. His literary works include 14 books on
subjects covering value education for school children and communal
harmony.
He has worked as
radio journalist on the themes of communal harmony. He also
organized/participated in inter-religious meeting of different
religious leaders, multi-religious Kavi Sammelan, meetings of
Communal harmony and inter-religious dialogue.
Anjuman Sair-e-Gul
Faroshan, Delhi was established in the year 1964 and has been
working for communal harmony since 1960s.
The Anjuman has
been organizing a weeklong unique historical festival every year,
that is, ‘Phool Walon ki Sair’, in Delhi for more than 40 years.
The festival is a
symbol of solidarity amongst Hindus and Muslims. Floral chadars are
offered at the mazar of Sufi Saint Khwaja Bakhtiar Kaki in Mehrauli
and floral pankhas are offered by both Muslims and Hindus at the
temple ‘Yog Mayaji’ also in Mehrauli. Considered as an
emblem of communal harmony, the pankhas of ‘Phool Walon Ki Sair’,
are presented to the President and Vice-President besides other
dignitaries.
The Anjuman
involves troupes projecting diverse cultural representations from
various states and with different religious background that
participate in ‘Phool Walon Ki Sair’, conveying the message of
communal harmony.
The award has been
instituted with a view to demonstrating due appreciation and
recognition of the efforts of individuals and organisations/institutions
for promotion of communal harmony and national integration in a
sustained manner over a sufficiently long period of time.
In addition to a citation, the award carries a cash
award of Rs 5.00 lakh and Rs. 2.00 lakh for the organization and
individual categories, respectively.
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