News Round-up : Sarsanghachalak plants sapling at Salem Karyalaya

Mahasangram rally by ABVP against
educational corruption in Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand unit of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) organised a Mahasangram rally in Dehradun to expose educational corruption, unemployment and anarchy prevailing in the State. Despite rains thousands of youth moved towards the Chief Minister’s residence with full enthusiasm.
The workers from all over the State gathered at Rangers Ground and passing through Lansdown Chowk, Kanak Chowk, Globe Chowk, Dilaram Bazar moved to Chief Minister’s residence. But they were stopped by police near Hathibarkala Police Post. The workers insisted to move forward and the police started lathicharge, used water cannons and even tear gas to disperse the youth.
The ABVP said the educational atmosphere from primary to universities in the State is deteriorating day by day. The mushrooming of private institutions is further deteriorating the academic atmosphere. The private institutions are badly exploiting the parents and students. The condition of primary education is so much pathetic that about 1,800 schools have been closed down. Last year about 82,000 students were deprived of admission in colleges. The degree delivery system is very poor in the State. The rally was led by ABVP’s national secretary Shri Haribhai Borekar. Zonal organising secretary Shri Dharmpal, State organizing secretary Shri Brijesh Bankoti, president Shri Ramakant Srivastava, etc. also joined the rally.    n

RTI route by ABGP activist solves the problem

Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat, Tamil Nadu, activist Balaji solved a problem affecting thousands of railway passengers coming from southern towns to Chennai Egmore. There is a halt at Tambaram where local electric trains start. If a passenger wanted to go to Nungambakkam by electric train after alighting from long distance express train he was harassed by the ticket collectors saying  that the ticket booked for express train was valid only for that train and not for the sub-urban electric trains. So the passengers used to be booked under ticketless travel, though Egmore is beyond Nungambakkam.  Balaji’s RTI brought out the fact that while booking by Express, say from Srirangam to Egmore, the passenger has only to seek reservation up to Tambaram and mark his destination as Nungambakkam, which is beyond Tambaram. Such a step will avoid unnecessary harassment.     (VSK, Tamil Nadu)

Mammoth protest march by Hindu Munnani against killing of Hindu leaders

Hindu Munnani, on August 24, organised a mammoth protest march from Rajarathinam Stadium to the Secretariat in Chennai against the killings of Hindu leaders and atrocities by the Muslims. Addressing the gathering Hindu Munnani State president Shri Arasu Raja said the State is witnessing killings of Hindu leaders and no justice is seen till date. Jihadi movement is highly active and the State Government is silent on this issue. In Ambur violence, it is visible that the police was helpless and suffered a lot due to atrocities perpetuated by the Muslims. Even the police was protected by Hindu Munnani volunteers there. It is high time that the Government should take notice of all the issues related to the Hindus and render justice.     (VSK Tamil Nadu)

Over 4 lakh families contacted in one day

The Griham Griham Samskritam (nationwide Home Contact Campaign to imbue the spirit of Sanksrit learning) by Samskrit Bharati proved to be a big hit on August 23. According to initial reports, over 23,377 volunteers visited about 4,24,204 families at their homes in cities, towns and villages all over the country on a single day. The key objective of the campaign was to generate awareness about Sanskrit reaching at the doorstep of the people. In Bengaluru alone, around 19,400 homes were contacted as part of the campaign with the help of over 1,500 volunteers. The campaign touched over 60,000 homes all over Karnataka with the involvement of around 6,000 volunteers.
The campaign received massive response in Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Rajasthan and many other parts of the country. The movement sought to demonstrate that Sanskrit is not just living but a thriving language that is more relevant than ever before. That Sanskrit is beyond barriers of caste, religion, gender and financial status was yet another goal. To acquaint people with Sanskrit as the vehicle of Bharatiya wisdom was also an important objective. The volunteers comprised people from all age groups, visited huts, homes, schools, shops contacting people from all classes. The campaign began early in the morning and went late into the evening on August 23 i.e. Sunday. A pamphlet describing Sanskrit and the Samskrit Bharati’s activities was distributed to every house visited. Interested families could buy a nominally priced booklet Samskara Bindu that has simple conversational Sanskrit sentences and other useful information. A total of 4,87,099 books were sold during the campaign by the families. The team members felt that love for Sanskrit in the society was similar to the adoration that Yog received during the Yog Day celebrations. People, including several Muslim families, expressed keen interest to learn Sanskrit through conversation camps and correspondence courses.
Another major campaign that the Samskrit Bharati workers joined was Sanskrit Week declared by the Government of India from August 26 to September 2. Sanskrit Day was observed on August 29. Programmes were organised all over the world on this day. Samskrit Bharati had requested various other organisations also to join the campaign for the promotion of Sanskrit.    n

Interference in religious traditions is saddening: Dr Togadia

Expressing agony and sadness about the Rajasthan High Court’s verdict banning Santhara tradition, VHP working president Dr Pravin Togadia said Bharat has a rich religious and cultural tradition and heritage existing for ages. Sanaatani, Jain, Buddhist, Sikh and allied all socio-religious practices and beliefs are part of these. Whenever Bharat’s society members, following these cultural activities and beliefs felt that there was a need for some changes in some practices, Bharat’s socio-religious followers of the traditions, themselves came ahead and made these changes gladly. Some examples: Women’s education, marriages of widows, etc. To bring about such changes, people who had been practicing the religion have themselves come ahead from time to time.
“Now-a-days, it has been observed that there is a concentrated effort by so-called pseudo secular western thinking groups to demean and degrade all that is traditional, religious and related to heritage of Bharat. Based on such biased thinking, no system should get influenced and hurt the religious sentiments of millions of Sanaatani Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists, etc. Therefore, while respecting the Judiciary, we humbly request all in the administrative systems including the Governments and Judiciary that they kindly leave the religious and cultural practices, beliefs, activities etc to the people,” said Dr Togadia in a statement issued on August 20.     n