India Herald 011117

Web: www.india-herald.com • Editor@india-herald.com • Tel: 281-980-6746

24 Pages

India Herald

VOL. 23 NO. 2 • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017 • P.O. BOX 623 • SUGAR LAND,TX 77487 • PERIODICAL PERMIT USPS 017699 • 25 CENTS

ICC elects new officers Houstonian among the overseas Indian award winners

Saundarya Sohoni, left, Nisha Mirani, Falguni Gandhi, Sapna Shah and Rajiv Bhavsar.

HOUSTON India Culture Center of Houston’s Executive Committee elections were held at India house on January 8th 2017 and the Board unanimously elected the following team for 2017.

Falguni Gandhi as President, Nisha Mirani as Vice President, Sapna Shah as Secretary and Saundarya Sohoni as Treasurer.

Rajiv Bhavsar as Immediate Past President will continue to be part of the Executive Committee.

The Trustee Board was also selected at this meeting and the following are the now-- Parul Fernandes, Sangeeta Pasrija, Hasu Patel, Vijay Pallod, Lachhman Das, Col Raj Bhalla and Charlie Patel.

The Election Committee was ably handled by Girish Pandya, Jawahar Malhotra and Sam Merchant.

The Board of Directors for 2017 are-- Dilip Dadhich, Pramod Bengani, Ajit Patel, Sangeeta Dua, Rafi Ansar, Hemant Patel, Nimish Sheth, Swapan Dhairyawan, Ina Patel, Kiran Shah. The next signature event of ICC is on January 21 Republic Day celebrations at Stafford Center.

Republic Day flag hoisting Flag Hoisting ceremony on India’s 68th Republic Day will be held on Thursday, 26 January, 2017 at 7:30 AM at the Consulate General of India (4300 Scotland St, Houston, TX 77007). The President’s address will be read. Indian nationals, members of the Indian American community, friends of India and their families along with children are cordially invited to the function. Participants are requested to assemble at Consulate General of India. Kindly bring a photo I.D.

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Ramesh Shah, third from right, receives the award from President Pranab Mukherjee.

BENGALUR: Houstonian Ramesh Shah was among those honored at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas for communtiy service.

Portugal Prime Minister Antonia Luiss Santos Da Costa and Nisha Desai Biswal, a top ranking Indian-American official in the outgoing Obama administration, were among 30 people conferred the Pravasi Bhartiya Samman awards by President Pranab Mukherjee here on Monday.

The first award was received

by Costa for his contribution in the field of public service.

Biswal, who is serving as assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs in the United States Department of State received it for her contribution to public affairs.

One award each was given

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Among the NRIs from the US, Hari Babu Bindal was honoured for his contribution in the field of environment engineering, Sampat Kumar Shidramapa Shivanagi for community leadership, while Mahesh Mehta, Ramesh Shah and Bharat Haridas Barai were awarded for their contribution in the field of community service.

Neena Gill and Priti Patel from the UK were honored for their contribution in the field of public service.

In the list of NRIs from the UAE, Vasudev Shamdas Shroff and one organisation Indian Social and Cultural Centre

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In the field of business, Rajasekharan Pillai Valavoor Kizhakkathi from Bahrain, Mukund Bhikhubhai from Canada and Susheel Kumar Saraff from Thailand were honoured.

In the field of medical science, Lael Anson E Best from Israel and Carani Balaraman Sanjeevi were selected. Sandip Kumar Tagore from Japan was awarded for his contribution in the field of arts and culture, while Muniandy Thambirajah from Malaysia and Zeenat Musarrat Jafri from Saudi Arabia were honoured for education and community service. In the field of public service, Pravin Kumar Jugnauth from Mauritius and Winston Chandarbhan Dookeran from Trinidad were honored.

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INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017 • PAGE 3

NEWS Hindu Americans now third largest religious group in Congress

Raja Krishnamoorthi, left, Kamala Harris, Ro Khanna and Pramila Jayapal American elected to Congress. “I’m proud to welcome my new colleagues to the 115th Congress that has become even more diverse and representative of the makeup of our country. I look forward to working with them in the spirit of karma yoga and aloha, treating all people with respect and doing our best to serve and care for others and our planet.�

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) took his oath of oďŹƒce on the Bhagavad Gita as did Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who used the US Constitution as well. Rep. Ro Khanna (DCA) chose to take his oath of oďŹƒce on a historic edition of the US Constitution. “I was honored to be sworn in on a bicentennial edition of the United States Constitution on loan from the Rare Books division of the Library of Congress,â€? said Rep. Khanna. “I selected this special edition of the Constitution to recognize my birth city of Philadelphia where our Constitution was signed, the bicentennial year I was born,

Leaders of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) along with Indian and Hindu American community members from across the country celebrated the beginning of the 115th Congressional session, which saw three new Hindu American members of Congress sworn in.

HAF was honored to serve as an event partner for Indiaspora’s Gala Tuesday evening celebrating these new Indian and Hindu American legislators, as well as those serving in state legislatures and in the current and upcoming administrations. “I’m grateful to the people of Hawaii for the opportunity to continue serving them in Washington, and was humbled to take the oath of oďŹƒce on the Bhagavad Gita, as I was sworn into the 115th Congress.

The Bhagavad Gita has been a tremendous source of inner peace and strength throughout my life, including through my two deployments in the Middle East,â€? said Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), the ďŹ rst Hindu

and the values I am swearing to uphold. I have always believed that Hinduism is a philosophy of life that respects religious pluralism, a separation of church and state, and civil liberties. So I also believe swearing in on the Constitution is deeply consistent with my faith, particularly as Mahatma Gandhi and my grandfather practiced it.�

With the swearing in of Gabbard, Jayapal, Khanna, and Krishnamoorthi, Hinduism becomes the third largest faith group represented in Congress.

More than a dozen Congressional leaders from both parties attended and addressed the audience at Indiaspora’s Gala, including House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate India Caucus Co-chair Mark Warner, Senator Dan Sullivan, House India Caucus Cochair Ami Bera, and all four

being, but of so many around United States and the world.�

The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) is an advocacy organization for the Hindu American community.

The Foundation educates the public about Hinduism, speaks out about issues aecting Hindus worldwide, and builds bridges with institutions and individuals whose work aligns with HAF’s objectives. HAF focuses on human and civil rights, public policy, media, academia, and interfaith relations.

Through its advocacy eorts, HAF seeks to cultivate leaders and empower future generations of Hindu Americans.

Hindu members of Congress.

Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Biswal, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and Ambassador Navtej Singh Sarna, India’s newly appointed envoy to the United States, also attended and gave remarks. “HAF sees this historic moment as a true coming of age for Hindu Americans politically,â€? said Jay Kansara, HAF Director of Government Relations. “We’re conďŹ dent that having more voices in government informed by Hindu values like pluralism, non-harming, moderation, and a quest for truth, will add great value to the policies impacting not only our lives and well-

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VIEWS

Dawn of political incorrectness

By HARI H. DAYAL, PH.D By definition, being politically correct is a virtue of politicians.

Oh really!

Everything candidate Trump said, and more importantly how he said, was politically incorrect. Almost everything presidentelect Trump has said is politically incorrect. Not to be outdone, the other side also confirmed political incorrectness was in vogue in 2016. Case in point, for the sitting president Obama to go on air and call a duly nominated presidential candidate of the other party ‘unfit fit to be president’ was patently politically incorrect.

Similarly, for Vice President Biden to go on national TV and say ‘Grow Up’ to a president-elect of the other party is blatantly politically incorrect.

And, by handing victory to Trump the electoral process has confirmed political incorrectness is no longer a dirty word.

The post-mortem of presidential elections is yet another endorsement of political incorrectness. Whether or not Trump deserved to be president, he was duly elected by the process prescribed in the Constitution. True, Constitution can be amended, and perhaps should be amended, to hand the election to the candidate receiving more popular votes. But, in the meantime, the rules are what they are.

In my humble opinion, Trump’s qualifications (or lack of such) notwithstanding, the fierce campaign by Democrats to nullify the election result was politically incorrect.

Why Hillary lost and Trump won will be a case history taught in departments of political science for a long time. But, I find it ridiculous that Democrats all the way to Obama should say that Russia’s hacking is what gave the election to Trump.

There is nothing new about a government trying to influence elections in another land. I am confident Russia did the hackingthey are certainly capable of doing that. And, given Russia’s hatred (oops, politically incorrect) for Hillary it is safe to assume the hacking was aimed at hurting her chances of being elected. But, the unanswered question is this: Is the US electorate so stupid (oops, politically incorrect again) that Putin will tell them to vote a certain way and they will obey!

Trump will be sworn as President in less than two weeks. He may be a President for four years or impeached in the interim.

Who knows, he may get lucky and be a President for eight years.

But, the dawn of political incorrectness has arrived.

Cartoon

Saturday, January 28th from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm At India House, 8888 West Bellfort, Houston, TX 77031 Indian nationals and persons of Indian origin may avail this opportunity and meet officers of the Consulate General of India, Houston.

US passport holders of Indian origin, who are in the process of applying OCI Card, Visa and Renunciation of Indian nationality, may bring in their applications with the supporting documents to the Consular Camp.

Indian passport holders who are in the process of applying for renewal of their Indian passport, may also bring in their applications with the supporting documents to the Consular Camp.

Officers of the Consulate General of India, Houston will verify the applications and supporting documents. Applicants may thereafter send the approved applications to CKGS, Houston.

To attend please register at www.indiahouseinc.org/events For more details contact Consul Amrit Paul at cgihouston@swbell.net www.indiahouseinc.org | 713-929-1900

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INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017 • PAGE 5

NEWS Raj Shah, deputy director of communications at the White House

By SESHADRI KUMAR An Indian American has been tapped to a high profile job in the White House.

President-elect Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that Raj Shah would be his deputy director of communications and research director.

Currently research director at the Republican National Committee, Shah is well known as the nemesis of Hillary Clinton, and he broke myriad stories about Clinton’s computer servers and missing emails, the Clinton Foundation and the Democratic National Committee during 2016 presidential campaign.

Shah, whose parents immigrated to the US from Gujarat, has been appointed as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Communication Director and Research Director, an announcement by the Presidential Transition Team said.

At the White House, Shah would be joining his former RNC colleagues, incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Communications Director Sean Spicer.

Shah was born and brought up in Norwalk, Connecticut.

His mother, Pramila Shah from Bhujpur in Gujarat, is a retired dentist.

Father Suresh Shah from Mumbai, got his engineering

Raj Shah degree from Oklahoma State University, but later switched careers and became the owner of a chain of retail stories.

Raj Shah most recently served as Co-Founding Partner and Managing Director of America Rising LLC, where he developed the organization’s Hillary Clinton opposition research book.

He previously served as a Deputy Research Director at the RNC during the 2012 presidential election cycle.

A graduate of Cornell, he has also worked on Senate and

presidential campaigns and served in the Office of Presidential Personnel during the administration of President George W. Bush.

While appointing Raj Shah to the RNC, Priebus said, “Raj will take the helm of a top-notch Research Department as we prepare to defeat Hillary Clinton and the Democrats in 2016 and to hold them accountable for their records. Raj is the expert on the subject of all things Clinton, and his expertise will be an asset to our party.”

“We’re excited to have Raj

join the team. He’s an accomplished researcher with a wealth of experience, the right instincts, and the keen eye that makes for a successful Research Director,” said RNC Communications Director and Chief Strategist Sean Spicer said earlier.

On his appointment to the RNC, Shah said “Americans cannot afford a third term of the Obama administration, but that’s exactly what we’ll get if another Democrat wins the White House in 2016,” said Raj Shah. “RNC Research will ensure that the American people will be informed of the facts, the failures of Democrat leadership, and the Clintons’ long history of lies, shady dealings and distortions.”

The New York Times in an article in November 2015 said : “Raj Shah runs the Republican National Committee’s opposition research arm, a beehive of two dozen tech-savvy idealists who have already spent two years searching through decades of government documents, tax filings, TV footage and news archives. One of their colleagues in Arkansas turns up every day in the Clinton presidential library to probe the Clintons’ accumulated past.

More than 330 Freedom of Information Act requests have netted 11,000 pages of records, and counting.”

In 2015, Shah was named to the Red Alert Politics 30 Under 30 list.

The list honored young, right of-center people who are making a difference on their campuses and in their communities.

The people on this list were selected for their passion; their dedication to conservative principles; and for their influence across the country.

Though his parents were Democrats, as Shah graduated from High School in 2001, the 9/11 happened and that shaped his political leaning to become a conservative.

What attracted Shah to the Republican Party, while most of the Indian Americans were leaning Democrats?

Shah believed in the principles of less government, less interference in the private sector, letting it have the opportunity to grow. He also believed in a strong military and a strong national security policy and posture.

Shah was quoted as saying, “Growing up in the Jain faith with parents closely involved with the Connecticut Jain Society, Shah attended religious classes and his parents took him to India to visit historic temples and other places. It’s part of my heritage that I will never forget.”

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PAGE 6 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017

INDIANS ABROAD Sankranti celebration at The Woodlands The Hindu Temple of The Woodlands (HTW) will celebrate Pongal and MakarSankranti on Sunday, January 15, 2017. This time of year marks the progressing of the Sun northward into Capricorn. This is one of the most auspicious days in the solar and lunar Hindu calendars. Devotees are invited to visit the temple and to take part in the celebrations any time during the day.

The special pujas for Pongal, including preparation and cooking of pongal at the east entrance of the temple, will be from 8:30 to 9:30 am.

From 9:30 to noon, devotees including children will be presenting a cultural program. This will include various musical and dance performances by individuals and groups, representing various regions of India. The cultural programs of HTW are very popular with the community and demonstrate considerable skill and talent.

At 12 noon, the weekly Sunday MahaAarti will be held, followed by MahaPrasad. All are invited to participate.

On Saturday, January 14, 2017, the Hindu Temple of The Woodlands invites all yoga practitioners to participate in the Suryanamaskar Yogathon at the temple. Beginning with introduction and warmups at 7 am, the 108 Surya Namaskarams will begin at 7:30 and continue until 9:30. Participants will be encouraged to start and stop depending on their own comfort levels. A light breakfast will follow. The program is free, but donations to the temple’s Yoga program will be accepted.

The Hindu Temple of The Woodlands is located at 7601 S Forestgate Dr, just off Woodlands Parkway, in The Woodlands (Spring), TX 77382. Established in 2005 and inaugurated in 2010, it serves the religious, cultural, educational, and social needs of the surrounding community, as well as providing services, such as free yoga classes to non-Hindu neighbors and friends and donations of food, clothing and other items to the less fortunate through local non-profit agencies. More information is on the temple’s website, www.woodlandshindutemple.org.

Obama selects four Indian-Americans for presidential awards WASHGINTON, D.C. US President Barack Obama today chose four Indian-American scientists for the highest honour given to science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their research careers for keeping the US on the cutting edge by their innovations.

The four are part of the list of 102 scientists and researchers who are recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

These scientists are Pankaj Lal from Montclair State Uni-

versity, Kaushik Chowdhury from Northeastern University, Manish Arora from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Aradhna Tripati from University of California, Los Angeles.

It is the highest honour bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

“I congratulate these outstanding scientists and engineers on their impactful work,” Obama said.

“These innovators are work-

ing to help keep the United States on the cutting edge, showing that Federal investments in science lead to advancements that expand our knowledge of the world around us and contribute to our economy,” Obama said.

Established by President Bill Clinton in 1996, the Presidential Early Career Awards highlight the key role that the Administration places in encouraging and accelerating American innovation to grow US economy and tackle greatest challenges, the White House said.

Islam outreach campaign

The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), one of the largest national grassroots level organizations of the Muslim Community, in collaboration with the Islamic Society of Greater Houston (ISGH), Islamic Education and Research Academy (iERA) USA, and Why Islam; is launching a one month long outreach campaign in Houston about Islam and the Muslims; starting this coming Saturday, January 7th, 2017 till early February 2017, which will include: Three billboards within/on the 610 loop in Houston (similar to above banner) There will be interactive booths set up in some places of Houston for people to know more about Islam and Muslims: First such booth will be this coming Saturday, January 7th, 2017, 10 a.m; at the Burnett Bayland Park, 6000 Chimney Rock, Houston, Texas 77081 Similar activities were done in the past in the country of Brazil, when the 20th Soccer World Cup was held, & in NJ when the Super Bowl XLVIII happened over there, and we have now Super Bowl LI happening at NRG Stadium in Houston on Feb 5th, 2017.

For more information, one can call Mustafa White at 1.713839-5799.

Tyagaraja Aradhana set for Jan. 28 and 29 Join the annual Tyagaraja Aradhana on Jan 28-29, 2017, a traditional annual homage to one of The Trinity of Carnatic Music’s revered saintly composers.

The event - held at Meenakshi Temple Kalyana Mantapam under the auspices of The Classical Arts Society of Houston (CAS) - will feature: Unchavritti on Saturday, Jan 28 at 8:45 AM from the main temple foyer - Tyagaraja’s beloved Sri Rama will be taken in a procession with group singing of Utsava Sampradaya Kirtanams.

Group rendering of Sri Tyagaraja’s Pancharatnams (five gems) with orchestra.

Individual performances, dances, mini concerts and special programs.

Discourses on select compositions of Tyagaraja with interactive learning of simple kritis.

Grand Finale concert by Houston-based youth on Jan 29 at 4 p.m.

2017 marks the 40th Anniversary of Tyagaraja Aradana in Houston by The Classical Arts Society of Houston. Interludes will reminisce yesteryear highlights & recognitions.

Sign up for individual or group performance at http://www. signupgenius.com. Event is FREE and all are welcome! Light Refreshments provided.

INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017 • PAGE 7

NEWS

Compassion’ to remain on Centre’s ‘watch list’ NEW DELHI Govt. says Compassion International has to abide by the law of the land After weeks of discussions, the Union government has decided not to take the U.S.-based Christian NGO Compassion International off the “watch list” after it was accused of funding Indian NGOs that were not registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA).

The decision was conveyed by Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, who met General Counsel and Senior VicePresident of Compassion International Stephen Oakley who flew down from the U.S. specifically for the meeting last week, government sources told The Hindu.

“We told the representative of CI that they will have to abide by the law of the land and no exceptions would be made.

We shared evidence of FCRA violations done by NGOs associated with them, which includes religious conversions,” an official privy to the meeting said.

“Being foreign does not give them [Compassion International] exemption,” said another source present at the meeting.

“We made it clear to them that they must follow laws [here] as they would in the U.S. itself.”

Compassion International was put on the “watch list” by

by the U.S. government and was the subject of a Congressional hearing in the U.S. as well. As reported by The Hindu on October 18, the Centre had allowed the donor to disburse around ₹2 crore funds to 10 NGOs in India, following a visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry when he brought up his concerns over the treat-

ment of CI with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

In December 2016, U.S. ‘Ambassador-at-Large’ for international religious freedom (IRF) David Saperstein who had met with MHA officials over the issue said that he “hoped for an accommodation (on CI issue) so that they can provide social services.”

No photographs of living leaders on hoardings, ads: EC

Foreign Secretary Jaishankar the Home Ministry on March 28 last year amid reports by security agencies that it was funding unregistered Indian NGOs which were accused of encouraging religious conversions.

The move meant the Coloradobased donor had to seek the Home Ministry’s permission every time it has to send funds to Indian NGOs registered under the FCRA. The source said the alleged violations done by two NGOs — the Caruna Bal Vikas in Chennai and Compassion East India — were flagged by the government in the meeting at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

The MEA and the U.S. Embassy refused to comment but The Hindu spoke to several

government officials in New Delhi and Washington and they confirmed the meeting.

The clampdown on CI has become a major issue between India and the U.S. in recent months. Last month, the U.S. Embassy also wrote to the Indian government asking it to share evidence on the religious conversions done by the Indian NGOs funded by it.

Asked if the Foreign Secretary would be meeting other NGOs like Greenpeace and Amnesty who are among about 22 international groups that have faced strictures in the past few years, an official said, “No.” CI has the distinction of being raised at the highest level

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s images may soon have to be covered or removed at petrol pumps in the five States where elections will be held from February 4. Amid the Opposition’s objection to the hoardings and advertisements carrying the Prime Minister’s photo, the ECI has ordered removal of photos of all ‘living political functionaries’ from all hoardings and advertisements which seek to project the achievements of any living political functionary or political party in five poll-bound States.

The Commission has directed chief electoral officers of these States to remove or cover photos.

FDI inflows rose 66% in last two years, says PM With the Government taking steps to improve business climate, total FDI inflows in the last two-and-a-half years have touched $130 billion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday. Modi said at Vibrant Gujarat summit, “The FDI equity inflows in the last two financial years were 66 per cent higher as compared to previous two financial years. The total FDI inflows received during the last year have been the highest ever.”

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PAGE 8 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017

INDIANS ABROAD

Lifetime visa ancestry check outsource plan

NEW DELHI India may soon ask other countries to endorse the ancestry of descendants of Indian indentured labourers they have hosted since the early 19th century, to give them lifetime visas through an ambitious project that breaks with traditional national security practices.

The foreign office has recommended issuing Overseas Citizens of India cards - that serve as lifetime visas - to fifthgeneration and older migrants if their current country certifies their Indian ancestry, senior officials have told The Telegraph.

The recommendation, made to the home ministry, is the outcome of year-long discussions within the foreign office to resolve a conundrum - how to plug a giant hole in India’s diaspora outreach without compromising national security.

India currently issues OCI cards only up to fourth-generBUY

ation migrants, a criterion that benefits those who migrated from the country, and the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of migrants.

But more than half of the 15.4 million-strong Indian diaspora are descendants of indentured workers, taken to East Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands and the Caribbean by colonial powers through the 19th century and the early 20th century, who do not meet the criterion.

The challenge in extending the facility to descendants of older generation migrants lies in the absence in many cases of documentary evidence of their migration from India - a legal and national security requirement, officials said, to avoid misuse.

Getting countries now hosting these diaspora communities to endorse the ancestry of OCI card applicants will eliminate the legal headache India

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would otherwise face in verifying claims without conclusive documentation.

But it also effectively outsources a role India and governments the world over have traditionally held closely - deciding the eligibility of those seeking to enter the country’s territory.

“We have made a recommendation,” Dnyaneshwar Mulay, secretary in charge of overseas Indian affairs at the foreign office, confirmed in response to a question from this newspaper.

“Once that is done (the recommendation is accepted), we will have defined exactly how we will decide who to issue an OCI card to.”

The move to extend the OCI card eligibility began to take shape after criticism from descendants of indentured labourers at a January 2016 meeting chaired by foreign minister Sushma Swaraj.

The criticism stung a government that has made its outreach to the Indian diaspora a central plank of its foreign policy, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The foreign office realised that Mauritius offered the best place to start the government’s search for documents that could be used to verify the ancestry of descendants of indentured labourers - known as girmitiyas.

The French, who brought Indian workers to Mauritius, maintained dock records of all those who entered the Indian Ocean island. Mauritius

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has preserved those records.

The country is also home to the fourth-largest Indian diaspora among nations where indentured labourers from India travelled - after Malaysia, Myanmar and South Africa.

In October, Mulay led a team from multiple government arms to Mauritius to examine these records and evaluate if they could form the basis for India to expand the OCI card scheme.

The team concluded, officials said, that in many cases, the documents Mauritius has preserved will enable the descendants of girmitiya workers to establish a direct lineage, while in others, the evidence was suggestive and circumstantial but not conclusive.

In its recommendations following the visit, the foreign office has suggested circumventing the challenge of authenticating inconclusive documents by asking applicants to get the governments of the countries where they are based to formally approve their ancestry.

Effectively, that approval will then serve as a bilateral assurance from the other country to India that the applicant is indeed of Indian ancestry.

The foreign office recommendations also suggest starting the expanded OCI card scheme with Mauritius, and then broadening it to diaspora living in other countries.

The plans to extend the OCI card eligibility to these descendants of indentured labourers - first reported by this newspaper on November 28, 2016 - were formally announced by Prime Minister Modi at the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas on Sunday.

“We are aware of difficulties faced by Persons of Indian Origin from these countries in obtaining an OCI card if they moved abroad four or five

generations ago,” Modi said, in the inaugural address at the convention.

“We acknowledge their concerns and have made efforts to address these issues. I am glad to announce that starting with Mauritius, we are working to put in place new procedures and documentation requirements so that the descendants of girmitiyas from this country could become eligible for OCI cards.”

But foreign ministry officials said they would need Modi’s personal support to carry through the project, because of the break it will represent with conventional national security practices - a fact the home ministry is expected to flag as a concern.

India’s obsession with ascertaining the ancestry of every OCI card applicant is rooted in preventing those of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin from using the facility to gain a lifelong visa to enter the country - though many of their ancestors came from an undivided India.

The security establishment’s concerns grew after PakistaniAmerican David Headley used his US passport to enter India and map sites in Mumbai for terrorists who attacked the city in November 2008.

Since then, the home ministry has strictly tried to segregate between Indian-origin foreigners and others of South Asian ancestry who are foreign citizens.

The foreign ministry’s proposal on expanding the OCI card scheme effectively relies on other countries - instead of New Delhi - carrying out background checks on those applying for the Indian facility.

But it’s a break from tradition India may have to make, officials said, if Modi is to keep his promise.

—The Telegraph

PM asks diaspora to take Indian citizen card soon

Lauding the deep and emotional attachment Persons of Indian Origin in Girmitiya countries have for their motherland, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday told PIOs to obtain Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cards by June 30.

“We have extended the deadline to convert PIO cards into OCI cards to June 30 from December 31, without penalty,” Modi told the Indian diaspora at the 14th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations here. “We have also set up special immigration counters at New Delhi and Bengaluru airports since January 1 for OCI card holders. Similar counters will be opened at more airports in the country,” said Modi in his inaugural address at the event.

Girmityas are the fourth or fifth generation of descendents of indentured Indian labourers who during the 19th century went to Fiji, Mauritius, South Africa and the Caribbean islands to work on agricultural fields and settled down in these countries.

Acknowledging the difficulties faced by the PIOs in getting the OCI cards, the Prime Minister said his government was working on new procedures to facilitate the descendants of Girmitiyas in Mauritius become eligible for OCI cards.

“We are committed to addressing similar difficulties of PIOs in Fiji, Reunion Islands, Suriname, Guyana and other Caribbean states,” said Modi on the occasion.

Noting that about three crore people of Indian origin were living across the world, Modi said they were not only respected for their numbers, but also for the contributions they have made to societies they live in. “The NRIs and PIOs have made outstanding contributions in their chosen fields. They are role models for immigrants from other backgrounds and countries. They take with them our values and culture wherever they go,” Modi said.

INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017 • PAGE 9

PAGE 10 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017

NEWS

Houston Chapter President visits Ekal School in Maharashtra Have you ever wondered what it might be like to spend a day visiting with one of 55 plus thousand Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation Schools in the remote and tribal villages of India?

Well, that was exactly what the new incoming president of the Ekal Houston local chapter, Mr. Pankaj Desai and his wife, Urmi Desai, accomplished during their recent visit to India.

The Ekal School Mr. and Mrs. Desai visited is located about three hours from Mumbai in the Charanwadi village of the Palghar district, in Maharashtra. This trip was arranged by the Ekal Mumbai area lead, Mr. Anil Mansighka.

Charanwadi is a small village, where Ekal School is run inside a local resident’s house.

The ambiance there reminded Mr. Desai of a village school 50 plus years back in the village where his parents came from and where he attended a summer school in a similar environment.

Upon arrival in Charanwadi, Desais were greeted with flowers and Aarti (Indian custom).

About 30 kids neatly dressed in a uniform between ages 5 and 11 years were also part of the greeting team and expressed their formal “Pranaam”. Ekal local lead explained Ekal Model – Functional Literacy, Ethics & Value Education, Health Care, Village Development and Empowerment.

The school teacher, as well as the local lead for all the area schools had the Bachelor of Arts degrees from local colleges. The real key is that the teachers were from the same area, who students can relate to and therefore dream of making a similar progression.

While on the day of the visit, school session was conducted in the morning to accommodate the Desais visit, they are typically conducted in the evening (5:00 PM – 7:30 PM). School started with Gayatri Mantra and other religious and patriotic songs.

There was a significant emphasis on allegiance to “Bharatmaata” and on ensuring India’s sovereignty.

Most of the students participated in singing Sanskrit shlokas and Hindi patriotic prayers.

They were very all disciplined and well behaved and had a great sense of community. This was followed by storytelling in Marathi (regional language) and Q&A. Good overall participation from Students was observed. Main emphasis of teaching was on language and vocabulary skills. Besides, in Math, students were taught basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. Many of them were getting it right the first time.

In addition to studies, teachers and students played a game together, which was very interactive - students knew each other by name and had good fun playing. There was small

break during which Desais distributed chocolate packs and some board games to students.

One of the teachers had a great singing talent, she sang and kids clapped and danced in circle. There was lot of joy in the room. Toward the end, Desais were asked to interact with the students and teachers – mostly in the local language, Marathi.

They all knew “Modiji’ by name but did not know about the big cities, Mumbai or New Delhi. When asked about their career aspirations, the most common responses were either a soldier or a policeman, with a handful aspiring to become either teachers or doctors.

Desais were quite impressed with the kids and encouraged the teacher to buy even more learning gadgets for them. As the lunch break arrived, about noon time, Annamrita (Iskcon Project) Food truck had arrived and kids rushed to get their nutritious mid-day meal.

Mr. and Mrs. Desai also visited a Gramothan project about 20 km from the school – nice vocational/technical training facility and compost project.

Ekal runs nine such centers, with the one in Jharkhand being the most developed. A few local college students were there for training as well.

As Desais completed an ISO 9001 Survey subsequent to their visits, they especially noted the following takeaways: • Ekal Schools are well run and students are learning, • Ekal has committed organization in the field to ensure success, • Ekal model works due to collaboration with many other local organizations, • Ekal model does promote Sustainability, • Use English charts and alphabets – posters were visible on the walls, • Use local community TV and other mediums (smartphones) to expedite learning and broaden their horizons, • Try to make students global citizens.

“We truly enjoyed our day visit to the Ekal School in Charanwadi – seeing a real school in live action, the progress and more importantly, the enthusiasm in these tribal communities, were priceless! It does give a true sense of gratification and a renewed commitment to the Ekal mission”, Mr. Desai wrote in his trip report.

This experience he said was indeed a real life manifestation of the good being done back home by the charitable donations made to Ekal by its multiple loyal donors, here in Houston and nationally across the United States.

The Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation is a tax exempt, registered, non-profit service organization dedicated to bringing education & village development to rural India.

The overriding philosophy is to take a holistic approach

Charanwadi Ekal School in session

Mr. and Mrs. Desai with local school staff and host family

Mr. and Mrs. Desai visiting the Gramothan project to social and economic development. The Ekal movement is the largest grassroots, nongovernment education movement operating in remote and tribal villages of India.

Ekal presently operates in

55,000+ villages, educating over 1.5 million children. Ekal Houston Chapter will be hosting its 2017 Annual Fundraiser on Sunday, May 7, at University of Houston Cullen Performance Hall. More details to

follow.

For more information about the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation, please visit www.ekal.org and click on Who We Are or What We Do, or contact us at ekalusa@ekal.org.

INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017 • PAGE 11

RELIGION Heavenly Gates open at Sri Meenakshi Temple

By M.K. SRIRAM It was a great and divine start to 2017 for several hundred devotees who worshipped at Sri Meenakshi Temple on the very auspicious Vaikunta Ekadasi day that fell on Sunday, January 8th. The darshan of Lord Maha Vishnu on this day is most important to many devotees.

“The Temple” is the place to visit on this day. The forecasters predicted a very cold morning, and cold it was with temperature at 24 deg. F early morning. But braving this cold, at least 50 devotees assembled at the sannidhi of Sri Venkateswara at the main temple at around 6 AM, to partake in the chanting of Thiruppavai. It was a truly divine experience.

The early morning arthi was accompanied by the beats of the chenda drums, which is a very unique Kerala tradition. By 9 AM, the crowd had grown much larger filling the temple hall. The priests started the most sacred abhishekam of the Lord to the chanting of vedic hymns.

The belief is that one’s ego and sins are all washed away when witnessing the abhishekam. The curtains were then drawn for the elaborate decoration (alankaram). This was the time when the temple hall was filled with Vishnu Nama, with the recital of Sahasranamam (1000 names of Lord Vishnu).

When the curtains were opened, Lord Venkateswara appeared in his most magnificent and glorious form giving darshan to his beloved devotees.

While the priests made final preparations, hundreds and hundreds of devotees lined up for the Vaikunta Swarga Dwara darshan outside the north temple door. This is the one time every year when the “Gates to Heaven” open and devotees have the blissful experience of having darshan of Maha Vishnu in his abode in heaven.

As the doors opened at about 10:45 AM, there was rapturous chanting of Govinda Govinda and devotees entered the Lord’s abode.

It was an indescribable sight to see the Lord with His consorts Bhoo Devi and Sri Devi adorned with dazzling alankarams seated on His Garuda vahana. Hundreds of devotees thronged through the heavenly gates to have darshan. Archana was performed simultaneously to the moola vigraha and the Utsava Murthies as the bhaktas basked in blissful delight with the Lord in their hearts.

At around noon, the deities on the Garuda Vahanam were taken in a procession around the temple to the chanting of Purusha Sooktham and various other Vedic verses. It was truly amazing that there was a non-stop stream of ardent devotees walking through Swarga Dwaaram from 10:30 AM till late in the evening.

MTS Chairman Mr S. Narayanan thanked Priests Sreedharan Raghavan, Pawan Kumar, Sriman Narayana and all the other priests, temple staff, Religious Activity Committee led by Sheila Sriram, Temple Board members and their families and volunteers for their phenomenal effort to make this a very fulfilling event.

He particularly praised the efforts of the silpis, Mr Ramanathan in particular for setting up and decorating the temple for this special event. This event was coordinated by Mrs Bhargavi Golla, Mrs Harini Sampath and Mrs Malathi Sundar.

Ready for a celebratory procession

Devotees wait in line to enter the sanctum sanctorum

Read India Herald on line at www.India-herald.com. email address: editor@india-herald.com Devotees seated inside the temple

PAGE 12 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017

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RELIGION Bhagavata Katha and Madhura Utsav

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Shri Ramanujam ji performs Radha Kalyanam Saints say that Bhakti (devotion) is akin to a virus.

It cannot be taught; it has to be caught! Bhakti is nurtured, inspired and grows only in the satsang of a Mahatma who himself (or herself) has that true bhakti.

This fact becomes more and more evident every year in the annual Madhura Utsav held at His Holiness Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji’s Houston Namadwaar every year end, to all the devotees who flock here from Houston and all corners of the country.

Organized annually by Global Organization for Divinity, this year’s 9th annual Bhagavata Saptaha and Madhura Utsav was held from Dec 24 to 31, 2016 and was another beautiful experience for all those who were fortunate to be a part of it.

With shravanam and kirtanam, the pillars of Bhakti, as its basis and conducted in the presence of Sri Ramanujamji, disciple of Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji, the week-long celebration was full of joy and inspiration, with Sri Premika Varadan-Sri Madhuri Sakhi (Lord Sri Krishna-Sri Radha Devi) in the center.

The highlight events were the sweet nectar of Bhagavatam katha by Sri Ramanujamji in the evenings where he elucidated in detail on Sri Krishna’s birth and His leelas, and the sharing of his sweet memories of Sri Swamiji in the mornings where he shared how being with Sri Swamiji was a constant learning on leading a life in Bhagavata dharma.

Ramanujamji’s expositions on Bhagavatam were so beautiful, deep and unique, and meant specially for rasikas (those who simply enjoy Bhagavatam for the sake of enjoyment). He dwelt in great detail for over 3 days simply on the birth of Sri Krishna and the single sloka “tam adbhutam balakam…” that describes the descent of Krishna avatar.

After that, over the next few days he went on to heartfelt descriptions and

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COMMUNITY Katha

From Page 13

A lighter moment during story-telling by Ramanujamji

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Makhan chor leelas â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and ďŹ nally concluded with a touch on Bhagavan Sri Krishnaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s soft prema leelas â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Brahma mohana leela, the Venu Gitam, Rasa leela, and ending on an auspicious note with Sri Rukmini Kalyanam.

Other events during the week included Sri Guru Paduka Pooja, daily Tiruppavai recitals, daily Nama dhyanam, daily Madhura Gitam Mahayagna renditions of Sri Swamijiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kirtans, daily Ashtapadi bhajans, Vahanam processions (Sesha vahanam, Garuda vahanam and Yaanai vahanam) with kirtans, Nandotsavam where all ladies and children danced around baby Krishna, Govinda Pattabhishekam (celebration of Krishna lifting mount Govardhan maharaj), Deepotsavam, Janavasam, Radha Kalyanam (the divine wedding of the divine couple),

Divya nama sankirtan and many other devotional events.

There were also many childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s events and cultural programs through the week â&#x20AC;&#x201C; rendition of Sri Swamijiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s songs by the students of Smt. Uma Ranganathan and group of Smt. Neela Iyengar, Smt. Kiran Partha and Smt. Raji Iyer; Hari Kathas by many children Mayuri and Keshav Srivaths and Krithika Dwarakanath from Houston, Chandrashekar Rajesh and Krishnanujam Srinivas from California; a play on the qualities of great devotees by over 30 children from across the USA and Canada; a special Nikunjotsavam concert by Kum. Akhila Mamandur of Houston TX; a quiz program, an outing for children, and more Over 200 devotees from Houston as well as visitors from across the USA/Canada enjoyed and served at the weeklong Madhura Utsav feast of devotion at Namadwaar.

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INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017 • PAGE 15

CINEMA

Veteran actor Om Puri passes away Veteran actor Om Puri, who delivered riveting performances in Hindi films and shone in character roles, passed away on Friday morning. He was 66. He has also acted in English and Pakistani movies, and is a Padma Shri awardee.

Puri has done defining roles in art films such as Aakrosh, Arohan and Ardh Satya ,among others. He was not confined to one language in the world of cinema. He played roles in Marathi, Telugu, Kannada and Punjabi films as well. Puri also played a much-acclaimed cameo in Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi.

Born in Ambala in a Punjabi family, Puri graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. He was also an alumnus of the 1973 class of National School of Drama, where Naseeruddin Shah was a co-student.

Puri made his film debut in 1976 Marathi film Ghashiram Kotwal. Some of his most notable films include Sandgate, Ardh Satya, Mirch Masala, Dharavi, Maachis, Gupt, Dhoop, Yuva, Don, Agneepath, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and others.

He earned international fame through British films such as My Son the Fanatic, East Is East and The Parole Officer, among others.Puri also appeared in Hollywood films such as City of Joy, Wolf, The Ghost and the Darkness ,among others.

Face of the common man, on screen

It was just yesterday that I met Om Puri at the movies, on the big screen, albeit as a disembodied voice in a small film called Prakash Electronics. His booming, gravelly intonation was unmistakeable in the film’s voiceover. Among the many things about him, as one of India’s foremost actors, I can’t shake off the impact of his strong, emotive, expressive voice, especially as the cop Anant Velankar in Govind Nihalani’s Ardh Satya (1983), rendering aloud Dilip Chitre’s poem and slowly realising how it actually reflected his own doubts and dilemmas: Ek palde mein napunsakta, ek palde mein paurush, aur theek taraazu ke kaante par ardh satya.

(Impotence balanced on one side of the scale, Masculinity on the other, And right on the needle in the middle of the weighing scale, A half truth) Face of the marginalised Ironically, the performance that made viewers take note of Puri and implanted him in the viewers’ consciousness most strongly and everlastingly was the one in which he barely spoke save that last, haunting

scream of anguish. His vacant eyes, gritty face and sheer intensity of presence told the tale of extreme oppression of the underprivileged, victimised tribal person Lahanya Bhiku, the role he became one with in Nihalani’s Aakrosh (1980).

Those were the days of the zenith of Indian parallel cinema and Puri rode splendidly on the wave alongside virtuoso talents like Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil, among others, and supported by directors like Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Ketan Mehta, Kundan Shah and Sudhir Mishra.

Puri and Naseeruddin Shah have been a prime example of healthy rivalry and positive competition when it comes to cinema, both feeding off and contributing to each other’s growth as actors. Both came with the thespian training of two rock solid institutes behind them — the National School of Drama in Delhi and the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. The niggling personal issues, if there were any, cease to matter now in retrospect.

“He was like water, taking the shape of every vessel he was put in. He soaked in the generosity and creative influences in his life,” remembers a friend. Some of Puri’s most significant performances in this time were all about the de-

prived and the disadvantaged.

Perhaps Puri’s own struggles in childhood and youth in Punjab brought them alive with a rare verity. Take for instance, the control and dignity with which he essayed the trauma of an untouchable shoemaker in Satyajit Ray’s TV film Sadgati (1981). Or the desperation of the poor land tiller in Shyam Bengal’s Arohan (1982).

Staggering diversity in roles When the parallel cinema movement ebbed, he was able to switch effortlessly to the mainstream as well. One the earliest memorable roles was that of the cop in Rajkumar Santoshi’s Ghayal (1990) and then again in Rajiv Rai’s Gupt (1997).

Just as much as the intensity he got identified with, Puri’s perfect comic timing made him win as many hearts.

Most prominently as the corrupt, inebriated builder Ahuja in Kundan Shah’s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983), especially in the one long scene with the dead body of Commissioner D’Mello (Satish Shah). Assuming D’Mello’s coffin to be a broken down car he tows him away to his farm house, a moment that makes one double up in laughter till date.

He was as incredibly funny as womaniser Banwari Lal in Kamal Haasan’s Chachi 420 (1997) too.

The strength of good actors lies not just in bringing author backed roles to life but in how they make their presence felt even in smaller roles and cameos. One of my favourite Puri performances is in Sai Paranjape’s Sparsh (1980). As the blind man Dubey, never once does he turn the disability into a caricature, as Bollywood is prone to, but lives his visual impairment, physically with all the inner turmoil and anxieties.

Then he towered in the climactic moments of Ketan Mehta’s Mirch Masala (1987), as Abu Mian the guard of the

spice of the factory, who gives refuge to Sonbai and is the only man standing with the women against the arrogant subedar and the submissive village. He was the powerful Sanatan in Maachis (1996) the pivot on which rested Gulzar’s problematising of the insurgency in Punjab, on how innocent youth were forced to turn “terrorists” at the altar of the “system”.

Overseas triumphs Puri was instrumental in being the ambassador of realistic Indian cinema abroad and ended up being part of a number of reputable and also some smaller foreign films, starting with a small role in Richard Attenborough’s epic Gandhi (1982). In Roland Joffe’s City of Joy (1992), he is the unlikely poor migrant pal of Patrick Swayze’s Max. In Ismail Merchant’s In Custody (1993), he is the Hindi professor who loves Urdu poetry. He acted alongside Jack Nicholson in Mike Nichols’ Wolf (1994). Two smaller but significant turns were in Udayan Prasad’s My Son, The Fanatic (1994) where he is the liberal father of a hardliner son, and Damien O’Donnell’s East Is East (1999), where he is the conservative Pakistani father unable to deal with the generation gap and cultural rift with his half-British kids.

Last, but not the least, Puri was at the head of the quality content on television, in the glory days of Doordarshan, be it the sprawling Partition epic Tamas, Bharat Ek Khoj, Yatra, or the betel-chewing netaji in Kakkaji Kahin.

Somewhere in the midst of it all these media, the original platform — theatre — took a backseat. The last a friend remembers seeing him on stage was in a Punjabi adaptation of the play Tumhari Amrita, called Teri Amrita with Divya Dutta.

Friends remember him as a caring person and a dogged

nurturer to his son Ishaan who has a visual impairment. Last few years, though, had not been great. The explicit revelations in the book, Unlikely Hero: The Story of Om Puri, by his second wife Nandita Puri broke him and the marriage as well. There was also a concomitant, unfortunate personal dissolution.

His only consequential presence of late was as the blacksmith sutradhar (narrator) in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Mirzya last year. And the last straw, perhaps, was how he was humiliated publicly for his contrarian views on the Indian armed forces on television.

But some good is still to come even in his absence. He is in perfect tune — laidback, natural and full of good humour — as Bakshi uncle with his on-screen better half Tanuja in Konkona Sen Sharma’s upcoming debut feature as a director, A Death In The Gunj.

My abiding memories of him is a close encounter in 2010 at a film festival in Yamuna Nagar, Haryana. Pleasantly surprised at the overwhelming number of women in the audience, he pointed out that there were more “devis” than “devatas” in the hall. Though he was a bit guarded while speaking of sex and nudity scenes in his own film My Son, The Fanatic, he was extremely happy at the response of the “politically aware” audience to filmmaker Seema Kapoor’s (also his first wife) film Haat, the Weekly Bazaar, on the Rajasthani custom of ‘Natha Pratha.’

“It’s ridiculous to assume that small-town audiences are not ready for serious cinema.

We have to give them an opportunity,” he said.

The audience lapped it up and went berserk clapping.

After all, it was Puri walking the talk on what he has been the best on screen — the face of the common man.

—The Hindu

PAGE 16 â&#x20AC;¢ INDIA HERALD â&#x20AC;¢ WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017

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NEWS Supreme Court to bleed swindling NGOs dry NEW DELHI The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to crack down on non-governmental and voluntary organisations, which have never bothered to submit balance sheets and utilisation certificates of huge amounts of public funds received from various Government departments and Ministries. About 32.97 lakh NGOs fall within the list of recipients.

According to a status report submitted in the court by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), out of 32,97,044 NGOs and voluntary organisations, which received public funds, only 3,07,072 organisations are filing balance sheets and utilisation certificates for funds received. The court asked the Centre to audit all these NGOs/voluntary organisations by March 31, 2017 and even launch criminal prosecution against those found guilty of misappropriating Government funds.

While the Government has cracked down on foreign funding received by NGOs, this is the first time ever that the Centre has got the approval to audit NGOs for funds received from Government departments and Ministries. A Bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar, Justices NV Ramana and DY Chandrachud, while passing the order, said, “All this is public money. Why does the Government give public money in a manner that it does not know what happens with it?”

What sparked concern of the court was a PIL, filed by advocate ML Sharma, which depicted how certain NGOs in Maharashtra failed to submit an account of funds given to them by Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Training (CAPART), an autonomous body functioning under the Ministry of Rural Development. Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, who was appointed to assist the court in the matter as Amicus Curiae brought out startling revelations contained in a report prepared by the Asian Centre for Human Rights. As per tentative figures gathered from Central and State departments, between 2002 and 2009, funds amounting to Rs 4756 crore was disbursed by Centre while States (not including all) gave away Rs 6,654 crore without receiving any account on how the money was spent.

Alerted by this largescale drain of public money, the Bench sought response from the Centre. Interestingly, the Centre filed an affidavit on January 1, 2013 claiming there was no mechanism to audit or seek accounts of funds given by it to NGOs and voluntary organisations.

To Government’s embarrassment, Dwivedi produced the General Financial Rules (GFR) of 2005 prepared by Ministry of Finance mandating audit of funds given to NGOs and voluntary societies. The Court remarked, “The Government seems to be slow else they should have a mechanism in place by now. The fact is that the Government is not aware of its responsibility of audit of NGOs as depicted in GFR 2005.”

Removing this misconception that even NGOs are under the ambit of public audit, the Bench allowed the Centre time till March 31 to audit the non-governmental beneficiaries of funds and even to initiate civil and criminal cases for recovery of dues.

To ensure such instances do not repeat in future, the Bench directed the Centre to frame Guidelines for Accreditation of NGOs that should contain rules mandating maintenance of accounts by NGOs, audit of funds granted, procedure for recovery of dues, and criminal prosecution in the event of misappropriation. The guidelines will be presented to court on the next date of hearing fixed on April 5.

Swiss Muslim girls must learn to swim with boys: Court

Strasbourg (France) Muslim parents in Switzerland cannot refuse to send their daughters to mixed school-run swimming lessons, Europe’s rights top court ruled on Tuesday, responding to a challenge by a Turkish-Swiss couple who argued the classes violated their beliefs. The European Court of Human Rights accepted that the refusal by authorities to exempt girls from the lessons interfered with their freedom of religion.

But the interference, it said, was justified by the need to protect the children from social exclusion. School plays “a special role in the process of social integration, particularly where children of foreign origin were concerned,” ruled the court, which is based in the eastern French city of Strasbourg.

Swimming lessons are “not just to learn to swim, but above all to take part in that activity with all the other pupils”, it added.

The case was brought by a Turkish-Swiss couple who argued that forcing their pre-pubescent daughters to attend the classes violated their faith. The court found that the Basel authorities had tried to accommodate the parents’ beliefs by, for instance, allowing the girls to wear the full-body “burkini” swimsuit. The court also said that the fine of 1,400 Swiss francs (around 1,300 euros) imposed on the couple in 2010 after a warning was “proportionate to the aim pursued” of getting them to comply with the regulation. The case was brought

Sky is the limit for investors in India: Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, left, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, centre, Portuguese PM Antonio Costa, second from right, and Serbian Premier Aleksandar Vucic, right, at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2017 in Gandhinagar on Tuesday.

Creating an environment for many MNCs and heads of sev- biggest strength, the Prime business and attracting invest- eral states and diplomats.

Minister said: “Some people ‘Progressive policies’ ments my top priority, he says say democracy cannot deliver “For investment, sky is the effective and fast track goverat Vibrant Gujarat Summit Prime Minister Narendra limit and our policies are very nance, but we have seen in the Modi said here on Tuesday that progressive. India is going to last two and a half years, it is India was on the threshold of emerge as one of the world’s possible to deliver quick results becoming the world’s largest largest construction markets. as well.” digitised economy offering im- All this offers unprecedented “India’s strength lies in 3Ds mense opportunities to global opportunities for the invest- — Demography, Democracy ment community,” he added, and Demand. Ours is a nation investors.

Mr. Modi was inaugurating listing the steps his government of vibrant youth; the discihad taken to improve the coun- plined, dedicated and talented the Vibrant Gujarat Summit.

In his 35-minute address in try’s ease of doing business youth of India offers globally English and Hindi, Mr. Modi ranking and making the poli- unmatched workforce while highlighted his initiatives that cies business and investment our middle class offers huge have apparently made the friendly. market.”

According to him, the govcountry the preferred destinaWhile seeking investments tion for Foreign Direct Invest- ernment was committed to an in industrial sectors, Mr. Modi ment (FDI) and the fastest India with better opportunities, mentioned his social commitbetter purchasing power, better ments and said, by 2022, his growing major economy.

“India alone offers the op- income, better quality of life, government would provide a portunities that could rival that and better living standards. house to every poor family and “Creating an enabling envi- a job to every person in the of an entire continent. It offers today the possibilities of a full ronment for business and at- country. century. And we want to do all tracting investments is my top He announced that India had this in a cleaner, greener, more priority,” said the Prime Min- become the “sixth largest mansustainable way. We are also ister, who also stressed that ufacturing nation, up from 9th” committed to protecting the en- his government was voted to and “the government would vironment. This is what India power on a promise of provid- ensure that the growth process has stood for since ages,” he ing “clean governance”. is inclusive and encompasses ‘Democracy can deliver’ told the gathering of captains both rural and urban communiCalling ‘democracy’ India’s ties”.© The Hindu of Indian industries, CEOs of

Major Indian science projects hit by legal, political delays: Nobel laureate India isn’t moving fast enough on major scientific projects due to ‘political and legal delays,’ David Gross, physicist and 2004 Nobel laureate, told an audience at a prelude to the Vibrant Gujarat summit in Ahmedabad.

Gross was referring to the stalled India Neutrino Observatory, a massive underground detector of subatomic particles, proposed to come up in Tamil Nadu.

The detector is to come up in an ecologically-fragile zone and has invited opprobrium by activist groups. Despite entreaties by scientists that the detector was not a threat to the environment, it is yet to get state-level clearances.

“India had to go beyond being a minor collaborator in big science research projects and take the lead but there have been inexcusable political and legal delays,” said Gross, “China is fast seizing these opportunities.”

He also referred to the government’s nod last year on having an India-based arm of an observatory to detect gravitational waves, called LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory).

This was after signs of gravitational waves, resulting from the collision of two massive black holes 1.3 billion light-years from earth, were announced last year by a team of scientists across the world,

including several from India.

PM Modi announced support for LIGO India, last February but there’s been little headway, such as a decision on the location of the detector, since.

India isn’t the only country to face environmental hurdles to large observatories. A proposed Thirty Metre Telescope in Hawaii is likely to be shifted out after protests by environmentalist groups. “ I don’t see (India’s) hurdles as environmental but from lack of strong political will,” Gross told The Hindu on the sidelines, “Withdrawal of currency may be good or bad but PM Modi has gone ahead and done it.”

PAGE 18 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017

NEWS

Fans on their feet as M.S Dhoni fires in last game as India captain

Sakshi Maharaj gets EC notice for speech

Sakshi Maharaj A fan runs to greet India A skipper MS Dhoni during a practice match against England at Brabourne stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday.

A packed Brabourne stadi- lice and then taken out of the West stand too was filled to caum reverberated with chants of stadium. The overwhelmed pacity. Notably, the entry to the “Dhoni! Dhoni!” as the skipper man stumbled his way out, crowd was free for this particuled team India for one last time. constantly turning back to lar match.

Dhoni, who sprang a surDhoni bludgeoned his way catch a glimpse of his hero.

“No further action was prise by quitting as the limited to an unbeaten 68. He was leading the India A side in the first taken,” Cricket Club of India overs skipper, was seen playing football with his teammates of two warm—up matches to sources said.

Since the afternoon, queues at the same venue last evening. be played by the tourists here.

An overenthusiastic fan were seen at the gates of CCI He also practised in the nets broke free from the packed as a palpable excitement was under lights.

Whoever the batsman at the crowd, ran on to the field to fall felt amongst the crowd. Iniat Dhoni’s feet, and when the tially, the East Stand was filled crease, the crowd was cheering skipper told him not to step on to its capacity, then the crowd only for Dhoni and was keen the pitch, he obliged by jump- thronged the North Stand at the to have the glimpse of their favourite leader for the one last ing over. He was escorted out Churchgate station end.

As the day progressed, the time. of the playing area by the po-

The Election Commission, taking cognisance of a complaint lodged by the Congress, has issued a notice to BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj for a speech in Meerut that allegedly had the effect of promoting enmity on religious grounds in Uttar Pradesh.

The MP has been asked to respond to the allegations by January 11, or the EC will initiate further action.

Noting that the Model Code of Conduct was in place in the poll-bound State and that the Supreme Court recently given a judgment — whereby invoking religion, caste, etc, for influencing voters is a corrupt practice under the Representation of People Act, — the Commission raised questions on the parliamentarian’s speech in Meerut on January 6.

The Commission, which also mentioned that a police case was registered against him, said the complaint filed on January 7 alleges that his Meerut speech, read in entirety, had the effect of promoting enmity between different classes in connection with the election on grounds of religion.

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INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017 • PAGE 19

PHILOSOPHY

Is the Afterlife a Non-Question? (Let’s Hope Not)

By DEEPAK CHOPRA, M.D. There are few questions where it can be said that literally every answer is secondhand, but the persistence of consciousness after death is one. As sticky and complicated as the issue seems to be, it can be broken down into three perspectives that in themselves are simple. The perspective of a believer supports life after death; the skeptical perspective denies it; the undecideds stand in the middle. It’s rare to find anyone who belongs to one of these camps who is willing to accept evidence from another.

In essence, believers don’t budge because they trust their religion; skeptics won’t budge because they trust rationality; undecideds remain stuck in ambivalence and doubt.

Yet even where militant skeptics trumpet their certainty at one end of the spectrum and at the opposite extreme religious extremists are willing to die in order to attain paradise, everyone bases his position on received wisdom of one kind of another. This renders the afterlife a nonquestion.

It has been a non-question for as long as recorded history, but a tradition doesn’t become true through persistence and the passage of time. The fundamental issue is whether the afterlife can be transformed into a viable question.

I believe it can, but it takes a lot of convincing and patient discourse before the needle moves even half an inch. As social psychologists have proved over and over, when you show partisans objective proof that their position is shaky or untenable, the net result is that they harden their position even more. Assuming that you, I, and the reader in the corner are open-minded, turning the afterlife into a valid question must return to basics, including the most boring basic, defining our terms. However, as it turns out, defining our terms actually answers the question.

The most basic term in this case is consciousness, because when arguing over the possibility of an afterlife, much confusion is caused by asking the wrong questions. If you don’t specify what consciousness actually is, you wind up worrying about the survival of the soul, or of “me,” the individual ego-personality. And if those pitfalls are avoided, Eastern traditions are filled with equally misleading notions of Jiva, Atman, and Brahman, or of Nirvana and Satori.

I will propose that if two people agree upon their definition of consciousness, they will agree on the existence or nonexistence of an afterlife. This isn’t an arbitrary judgment. It rests on the familiar experience that people make up stories, they believe in their stories, and the reality they inhabit

conforms to their stories. For a skeptic whose story contains the facts that all things can be explained through materialism, experimentation, data, measurement, and a confirmed allegiance to objectivity over subjectivity, there will be no doubt that the afterlife is spurious – not because it actually is, but because a certain story, or worldview if you prefer, forbids it to exist. By the same token, a confirmed believer holds fast to a story where the nonexistence of a personal God is impermissible, even unthinkable, and therefore the afterlife acquires its reality by association with the deity.

If these points are acceptable, we can refine our investigation and ask if there is a definition of consciousness completely detached from all stories, which means the absence of bias, predisposition, received wisdom, rumor, myth, group pressure, wishful thinking, fear, apprehension, and mental figments of very sort.

I believe so. Every reasonable person, I think, will accept that consciousness, as experienced by humans, is the awareness of two things: that we exist and that we experience. By extension, a reality that cannot be experienced is moot. By this measure, UFOs, angels, the afterlife, and the quantum vacuum exist on the same playing field. They are suppositions and inferences.

If we toss out suppositions and inferences, what can we truthfully say about consciousness? By this I mean what can we say that no reasonable person will disagree with? Here we run into a complicated situation, because certain aspects of consciousness require extended discussion and a backand-forth between people of good will. Such a setup is rare, unfortunately, but at least I can relate a few things that I’ve been able to convince people of over the years.

1. There is only one consciousness. To subdivide it makes no sense. This point is lifted almost verbatim from Erwin Schrödinger, the eminent quantum pioneer. Philosophically, the “one consciousness” position is common to monistic schools, because they repudiate any true difference, ontologically, between the one and the many. Yet when dealing with everyday people, it’s obvious that we all cling fervently to being individuals, outfitted with my family, house, body, mind, and soul. To crack this allegiance requires arguments like the following: • When you get wet, do you call it “my” wet? Some things happen to us personally but turn out to have a general existence.

• If you sing “The StarSpangled Banner” as you walk down the street, did the song

walk down the street with you?

• If you imagine your mother’s face, where is that mental image located? The brain has no pictures in it, and no light.

When you imagine your mother’s face, you didn’t consult a directory of facial characteristics the way computer recognition software does – you simply called up what you wished to see.

• Where is your self located?

There is no neurological evidence of a region of the brain that contains the self, and, even if researchers claimed such a region existed, it would have to contain everything attached to you as a self, including your life history.

2. Assuming that the discussion can crack open the presumption of isolated, local consciousness – there are many ways to get at this, not just the few questions listed above – the second point is that this “one consciousness” cannot be located. It is everywhere, all at once. This point sounds like a hard sell, as it would be if everyone held an advanced degree in philosophy, I imagine. But in everyday life the argument is fairly easily based upon physics.

• Cosmologists and quantum physicists agree that spacetime originated in a domain (referred to as the zero point, quantum vacuum state, or the realm of pure mathematics) that isn’t in time and space.

• The entire universe, as well as individual subatomic particles, emerged from this precreated state, which has no qualities we would recognize such as linear time, dimensionality, solidity, energy, etc.

• At the very least, all creation stories, scientific or not, converge on the creation of something out of nothing. Beyond our experience of reality in spacetime, there is a field of infinite potential, unbounded possibilities.

• As the reality of space, time, matter, and energy appeared and continues to appear, the existence of consciousness must be accounted for. There are only two viable possibilities that are taken seriously.

The “matter first” position holds that mind has its origins in matter and energy (to which some theorists add information). The “mind first” position holds that consciousness is the source of everything, including matter and energy.

3. If there are only these two positions, how do we decide between them? The difficulty is that being monistic, the two are incompatible and, more critically, totally selfconsistent. It isn’t possible to step outside the framework of “mind first” or “matter first” to gather evidence. All the evidence lies within the worldview that produced it. Even if other, as yet unknown, kinds

of evidence emerged – such as the current, quite baffling existence of so-called dark matter and dark energy, which don’t follow the rules of visible matter and energy – it would be absorbed into pre-existing stories that we live by.

In deciding between “mind first” and “matter first,” the crux is a single question. Is it more probable that matter somehow learned to think or that mind can create matter? It seems astonishing to me that more than 90% of scientists are so conditioned to reduce every issue to matter and energy (to use the favored term nowadays, they are physicalists), they accep without investigation the assumption that the sugar in a sugar cube, once ingested, can travel past the blood-brain barrier and suddenly think, feel, wish dream, and do science.

No one has remotely come close to showing the point in evolutionary history where ordinary molecules acquired consciousness. Therefore, the very notion that the brain is a privileged object, the only “thing” in creation that has consciousness, is untenable.

The brain is simply an ordinary object composed of ordinary atoms and molecules. It didn’t become consciousness through the random combination of complex organic chemicals.

The contrary position, that consciousness pre-exists the physical world, has some simple evidence on its side. The simplest, of course, is that the impossibility of the “matter first” position leaves only one other viewpoint that can possibly be true. But to most people such an argument feels like sleight of hand. Therefore, we can point to the human brain, where every sensation, image, feeling, and thought pushes brain chemicals around, redirects them to various parts of the body, causes vital signs to change either slowly or abruptly, and actually produces some chemicals, such as neurotransmitters, out of nothing.

The creation of something out of nothing has been lurking in the background as the ultimate question, yet with reference to everyday experience, the mystery becomes both personal and self-evident. If someone whispers “I love you” in your ear, the mind-body system will display hundreds of changes dissimilar to what occurs if the whispered words are “I have a gun pointed at your heart.” The deciding factor isn’t material in the slightest; it consists of mental activity, the continual production of thoughts, words, meaning, purpose, direction, intention, and so on. It is far from impossible to convince reasonable people that these points are true, and they stem from defining consciousness in the most basic, intuitively validated way. As

to the specific issue of an afterlife, consider what lies on the side of its existence: • Consciousness, being nonlocal, is not subject to birth and death.

• Even in physicalist terms, there must be a pre-created state beyond time and space.

• Birth and death, being aspects of linear time, are not present there.

• An argument can be mounted that certain abstract experiences, such as mathematics • and information, have an indestructible aspect, again immune to birth and death.

• Body, mind, and the world “out there” cannot be divorced from conscious experience.

• The only reasonable location for all of them is in consciousness itself.

• If all of the above are true, then nothing exists except as ness. Some of these states we identify as matter and energy, but this is simply a habit of mind built up for cultural reasons.

There have been societies where “mind first” was just as self-evident as “matter first” is to us.

Having laid out, in truncated form, the argument for consciousness as the basis of reality, not everyone may be willing to follow the clues that lead to an afterlife. But that isn’t as important as realizing that we have tended to ask the wrong questions.

One can devote a book to untangling the various possibilities for consciousness to persist after the end of the body.

(I wrote one, Life After Death, 2008) In the end, however, the stubborn way that old stories cling to us, and we to them, muddies the issue and opens the way for vehement partisans who refuse to see that they are flogging secondhand opinions. Until we all are willing to think fresh thoughts about a worn-out question, consciousness will remain constricted.

If consciousness begins to expand on an individual basis, there is hope for clarity. More importantly, we can begin to bring centuries of baseless fear and superstition to an end. I’d suggest that ending the superstition of materialism would be a good start.

(Deepak Chopra MD – FACP, Carlsbad, California. Email: Deepak Chopra@DeepakChopra.com; www.deepakchopra.com.

Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research| December 2016 | Vol. 7 | Issue 11 | pp.

1235-1239.)

PAGE 20 â&#x20AC;˘ INDIA HERALD â&#x20AC;˘ WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017

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Classes now ongoing Visit www.chandrakantha.com

or call for info.

(713) 665-4665

Classes in Houston, Mission Bend, & Sugar Land

practical technique of tuning inwards to experience our higher selves. Meditation with someone who has the capacity of yogic transmission can help you explore the Heartfulness practice more deeply. There are no charges for this, and we invite you to experience the unique beneďŹ ts of this transmission.

Workshops on Heartfulness relaxation and meditation are held weekly throughout Houston, including Saturdays at 11 am at India House. Web: www. heartfulness.org; Email: houston. heartfulness@gmail.com. Cell: 713-929-0040.

Heritage Classes Ashirwadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Heritage Classes in Katy, Cypress and Sugar Land for kids 4 to 18 yrs - meditation, Yoga, slokas, stories from scriptures, Vishnu Sahasranam, bhajans, competitions and fun activities.

Adult meditation classes. Register at www.ashirwada-blessing.org or Sri Ravula 281-995-0930.

Hare Krishna Dham Houstonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s original Vedic temple, ISKCON of Houston. At 1320 W 34th St. (77018). Daily Darshan & Arati Times: 4.30 a.m, 7 a.m, 8.30 a.m, 12 noon, 4.30 p.m, 7 p.m, 9 p.m. Sunday Festival: 5.30 pm to 7.30 p.m. Weekly Gita classes for adults; call 281-433-1635 or harekrishnadham @gmail.com Houston Namadwaar A prayer house where the Hare Rama Hare Krishna Maha-mantra is continuously chanted. Weekends: 8-11 AM & 4-7 PM, Weekdays: 7-8 AM & 6-7 PM. Weekly â&#x20AC;&#x153;Gopa Kuteeramâ&#x20AC;? childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s heritage classes and Srimad Bhagavatam classes. Call 281-402-6585; visit www.godivinity.org (Global Organization for Divinity).

Saumyakasi Sivalaya Sri Saumyakasi Sivalaya is located at Chinmaya Prabha, 10353 Synott Road, Sugar Land, TX 77478.

Temple timings: Monday to Friday: Morning Closed. Open in the evening 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM; Saturday and Sunday: 9:00 AM 2:00 PM and 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM. For more information Contact 281-568-1690 or Jay Deshmukh at 832-541-0059 or visit www.saumyakasi.org Gauri Siddhivinayak Temple Darshan from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. All major festivals as well as birthdays, naam karan, engagement and other ceremonies. Call Pandit Pradip Pandya 832-4669868 for puja and other ceremonies. At 5645 Hillcroft Ste 701, Houston, TX 77036.

Veerashaiva Samaja VSNA Houston is a group of families who believe in Veerashaiva dharma (Basava dharma). Monthly Mahamane program for prayer and

discussion on Vachana Sahitya followed by Prasada. Contact: vsnahous ton@gmail.com or Jagadeesh Halyal 832-744-4166.

Mar Thoma Church Trinity Mar Thoma Church every Sunday at 5810 Almeda Genoa Rd. Sunday School at 9:15 a.m.

Malayalam service at 9:30 a.m. on 1st & 3rd Sunday. Adult Bible class at 9:30 a.m. English service at 10:30 a.m. on 2nd & 4th Sunday. Call 713-991-1557 or 281261-4603.

Telugu Christian Fellowship Telugu Christian Fellowship meets every third Saturday of the month at Triumph Church, 10555 W. Airport Blvd., StaďŹ&#x20AC;ord TX 77477 at 6:30 p.m. Join us for a time of praise, worship and fellowship. Worship is in English.

For information call Chris Gantela 281-344-0707, or Rev. Vijay Gurrala 281-997-0757.

Sri Guruvayurappan Temple Hours: Mon to Fri 6 a.m. -8 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Weekends & Holidays: 6 a.m. to noon and 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Bhajans Saturdays 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Sundays 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Special poojas (weekends and holidays) Choroon (Annaprasam) for kids, Thulabharam, Vahana Pooja, Nirapara. Temple is located at 11620 Ormandy St. (77035) Tel: 713-7298994 email: temple@ guruvayur.us Preksha Meditation JVB Preksha Meditation Center conducts weekly Meditation, Yoga and Swadhyay sessions inside its unique Pyramid hall under the auspicious guidance of Samanijis, and runs special events and programs like I-Choose, Meditation Camps and Gyanshala program for children ages 4-14 yrs.

JVB is located at 14102 Schiller Rd. Houston 77082. Every Tuesday, 9:30 am-11:30 am, Samaniji has pravachan for all adults interested in learning about Jainism.

Every Wednesday there is Swadhyay class from 7-9 pm and every Thursday from 9:30-11am there is special Yoga class for Ladies only.

Call Seema Jain at 281-575-0575 for further information. Visit www.jvbhouston.org or send email at info@jvbhouston.org for more details.

Patanjali Yogpeeth Free Yoga Classes every Sat/Sun at Arya Samaj from 8 am to 9:30 a.m. Call Anil 281-579-9433. For other free classes, call Indra 281537-0018. For Yoga/Herbal products, call Shekhar 281-242-5000.

Web: www.pyptusa.org and www.

DivyaProducts.com.

Hindu Temple of The Woodlands 7601 S. Forest Gate Dr, The Woodlands, TX 77382 Temple Hours, Weekdays: 7:30 AM - 9:30 AM 5:30 PM - 8.30 PM Aarti @ 7:30 PM Saturday and Sunday 8:30 AM - 1:30 PM Aarti at 12:00 PM

5:30 PM - 8:30 PM Aarti @ 7:30 PM; Contact 832-585--0001 or temple@myhtw.net Sathya Sai centers Sunday program held at two locations (North Houston: 12127 Malcomson Road, Houston; South Houston: 246 Fluor Daniel Drive, Sugar Land) from 3:00 to 5:30 pm) - Sai Spiritual Education (SSE) classes for children; Study Circle for adults & Devotional singing for all. Service programs - food distribution, canned food drives, nursing home visits, tutoring at schools, etc. Contact Venkat Rao (North) - 602-503-2249 or Ranji Raghavan (South) 281-451-8238.

Visit www.sairegion10.org Sadhu Vaswani Center Sadhu Vaswani Center of Houston holds regular Satsang on 3rd Thursday of the month and daily Arti at 7.30 p.m. Call 281-4630379 or e.mail ramolaj@aol.com Gaudiya Math Sri Govindaji Gaudiya Matha at 16628 Kieth Harrow Blvd., Houston 77084. Satsang Sundays 5 to 7 pm. Mantra meditation, kirtan, Sanatan Dharma classes. Vedic Education and Hindi classes for kids.

Gita classes noon - 1:30 pm Wed. Hanuman Chalisa and Ramcharit Manas on Tue. 7:30â&#x20AC;&#x201C;8:30 p.m. info@sggm.org or 281-499-3347.

Swaminarayan Temple Hindu Satsang at Shree Swaminarayan Hindu Temple, under Shree NarNarayan Dev Gadi kalupur.

Opens daily from 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Daily aarti at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Saturday sabha from 5p.m to 7 p.m. followed by aarti at 7 p.m. and Maha-Prasad (free dinner). www.issotx.org. (281) 530-2565.

Sanatan Dharm Maha Sabha West Indian Religious Organization called Sanatan Dharm Maha Sabha Branch # 377 is located at 26100 Tina Lane, Katy, TX 77494.

Durga Mata Pooja is held every Friday from 7 pm to 9.30 pm. Contact Ram Sharma @ 713-412-9985.

Gandhi Library Mahatma Gandhi Library Book Club: Meets 2nd Sunday of each month; 12:30 PM at Arya Samaj Greater Houston, 13475 Schiller Rd. Join the discussion of the great manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s autobiography â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Story of My Experiments with Truth.

Call Manish Wani 713-829-6979.

Sant Nirankari Mission Sant Nirankari Mission holds its weekly spiritual congregation on every Sunday at India House 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. followed by community meals. All are welcome. For further information, call Raj Bhala at (281) 980-2825. .

INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017 • PAGE 21

PAGE 22 • INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017

SOCIETY

Hindus in America embrace ‘same sex marriage’ in Vedic style

By VARGHESE K. GEORGE They might be homophobic in India, but in the U.S., it is some Hindu priests and groups who are officiating at same-sex marriages The Bible may have decreed that no one shall separate what god has joined together, but opposition to same-sex marriage continues to be a mainstay of Christian conservatism in the U.S. Homosexual marriages are legal in the U.S., but a religious ceremony accompanying them is not easy to pull off.

Unusually, although opposition to homosexuality has been the rare unifying plank for Hindu, Christian and Muslim conservatives, at least two Hindu groups in the U.S. have gone all out to support same-sex couples and hold their hands as they circle the fire and say ‘I do’, with Vedic chants and chiming bells in the backdrop.

Neeral Sheth and Anu Hazra, both doctors in their early 30s, had been dating for over a decade when they decided to get married earlier this year. Their parents had come to accept their same-sex relationship, but marriage meant opening up to the larger social universe occupied by traditional Hindu families.

“A Hindu marriage made the transition easy for them,” recalls Sheth.

“I was raised with a strong sense of Hindu religion and culture. It was a bit tough when I learnt that I was gay, because I did not know how it fit into Hinduism. It was only when I realised that there is a distinction between culture and Hinduism that I began to accept Hinduism more.”

“There was no other way I could have gotten married,” he adds, “because family support is everything for me. It is about two families coming together, unlike American marriages that focus on the couple.”

“It helped that we understood each other’s temples, customs, and shared the religion. It helped that both of us were Indians and Hindus,” recalls Hazra.

Sheth focuses on mental health and Hazra plans to work with HIV positive populations — choices that have also been guided by their identities.

Their marriage in June was one of six Vedic ceremonies involving same-sex couples conducted over the last six years

by Acharya Hersh Khetarpal, the head of the Yog Sadhan Ashram in Chicago.

Interestingly, a deep cultural conservatism had informed her own views on the issue earlier, until a casual dinner-table conversation with her family prompted a new inquiry and a fresh understanding.

Khetarpal noticed a distinct unhappiness in her daughter Priya when someone made a negative comment on homosexuality.

‘I was raised with a strong sense of Hindu religion and culture. It was a bit tough when I learnt that I was gay, because I did not know how it fit into Hinduism. It was only when I realised that there is a distinction between culture and Hinduism that I began to accept Hinduism more.’ — Neeral Sheth “We began talking to her, and it turned out that she was homosexual,” she recalls.

Adds Priya, who was then dating Rebecca Parrish, whom she met while volunteering for a non-profit, “My parents were very understanding when I told them about my sexuality, but it was not easy for them. Gradually they began to be more accepting of it.”

When Priya and Rebecca (who was born Christian but raised agnostic) decided to get married, the Khetarpals had to open up to relatives and the larger community and, understandably, “that was tougher”.

Khetarpal consulted her father and guru who lived in Punjab, and learned the rituals to solemnise her daughter’s wedding.

Priya and Rebecca were married in 2010, in a ceremony that began with a Ganesh Pooja, followed by jaimala and the parents linking the couple’s hands together.

The fire ceremony, pheras, sapta padi or seven vows, exchange of rings and tilak followed.

The same sequence was followed in Sheth and Hazra’s marriage too.

“For women, there is sindoor and mangalsutra as well,” Khetarpal said.

For the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), which campaigned against references related to caste, and for more uncritical views on Hinduism in California school syllabi earlier this year, supporting same-sex couples is at the heart of its principles.

One of the members of its leadership council, Fred Stella, a white man and formerly a Roman Catholic, has been authorised by a temple in Michigan to officiate marriages. He solemnised the first same-sex marriage supported by HAF in New York this year, between an American-born Indian Hindu and a Canadian-born Christian.

Stella is a Hindu pracharak — “an equivalent of a Christian lay-minister in America,” he says — who routinely officiates ceremonies for heterosexual couples, not all of them Hindus.

“Many people who move away from Christianity... retain a broad spiritual orientation. When they have to get married, they feel going to a temple is hypocritical but at the same time, they have an element of spirituality in them.

Neeral Sheth and Anu Hazra, married last June, are among the many same-sex couples opting for a traditional Hindu marriage in the U.S. They have taken up yoga, they meditate, and some of them even have a guru. They ask me to do the wedding services.”

However, he adds that “the choreography” remains Christian, involving the groom walking the bride down the aisle “and vows and flowers and all that.”

‘Yogic philosophy says that we are souls and the soul has no gender. I have a daughter who is lesbian, I know god created her that way.’ — Acharya Hersh Khetarpal, head of Yog Sadhan Ashram, Chicago “HAF believes that Hinduism teaches that you are not the body. The ideal is realisation of the soul or the atma within you. All ideas of sex are related to the body. In fact, we find a positive mention of the third gender in the ancient texts,” says Aseem Shukla, co-founder of HAF. Swaminathan Venkataraman, who wrote the position paper of HAF on homosexuality, states: “There is absolutely no reason for a negative view of homosexuality in Hindu texts.”

Khetarpal agrees: “Yogic philosophy says that we are souls and the soul has no gender. I have a daughter who is lesbian, I know god created her that way.”

She believes the opposition

by Hindu groups in India to homosexuality is due to their ignorance of Vedic heritage. “It was after the arrival of Christianity in India that same-sex marriage became taboo,” she says.

While many Christian pastors in America continue to hold extremely homophobic positions, Acharya Khetarpal and the HAF, with their refreshing new interpretation of the Hindu faith, have elevated the very meaning of “soul mates” for many same-sex couples in the U.S. today. varghese.g@thehindu.co.in —The Hindu

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