Art of Living had sent out model draft to "nominate" Sri Sri for Nobel Prize, campaign began in 2004: Blogger

By A Representative
Amidst spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar's claim that he “refused” to accept Nobel Peace Prize, a 2010 blog, written by a “whistleblower” on a site "seeking" to open dialogue with “former Art of Living (AOL) members and currently doubting ones”, is being quoted to point towards how Sri Sri was “very feverish about getting a Nobel Peace Prize” in 2004.
“In September 2004”, this blog claims, “All AOL centres received an email saying that the Nobel Peace Prize Project (NPPP) has been launched with Guruji’s designation of an international team to work quickly and quietly on this initiative”.
It insisted, it was necessary to "initially to work with Peter Payoyo, overall coordinator, Netherlands; Christopher Kiran Byrt, Norway; Christoph Glaser, Switzerland; Werner Luedemann, Germany; Ewald Poeran, Netherlands; and Fahri Saatcioglu, Norway.”
The blog quotes the email as saying, “We urge everyone to be very discreet about this matter. It is the standard policy of the Nobel Committee that nominators and nominees must not publish nor advertise their nominations. Guruji’s nomination will be unnecessarily jeopardized if we allow the NPP Project to be exposed publicly. So let us all just keep the smile, keep the silence, and wish for the best.”
A model nomination letter was sent out to all the centres, the blogger says. Thus, an email warned, “The ‘model nomination letter’ circulated earlier (Word document: “Example and Elements of a Model Nomination Letter”) is for your guidance only. Use this document to get a general idea about the particular nomination letter which you need to draft, when this drafting is called for. The ‘model nomination letter’ should NOT be copied verbatim.”
Another email, quoted by the blogger, says, “The National Coordinator will act as a focal person for our collective efforts and will become part of the global coordination network to assist in Guruji’s NPP nomination.”
The person who sent the email said, “In the coming days and weeks, I and the other members of the International Coordination Team will be calling you individually by phone so that we may be able to share personal updates about progress made on the project.”
Suggesting that the spiritual guru personally took interest in the project, the blogger quotes an email as saying, “Yesterday in Brussels, I had the opportunity to talk to Guruji about our project. His message and his blessing to all of us is: Let us work harder and give our very best to come up with many NPP nomination letters.”
A second email said, “Guruji met with of the NPP Project Coordination Team last Saturday afternoon in his room in the Ashram at Bad Antogast, Germany. The members of the team that went to see him were Christoph Glasser, Werner Luedemann, Ewald Poeran, and myself. Also in attendance in the meeting were some Art of Living colleagues who had an interest in the project.”
And a third one said, “Guruji expressed satisfaction on the fact that we have secured at least 130 confirmed nominations as of Saturday morning. It was mentioned to him there were four heads of government (one president and three Prime Ministers) who have supported his nomination so far. It was also mentioned that many more new nominations will be secured in the coming days.”

Comments

Shivanshu Shrivastava said…

If Nehru can compromise national security, sell the nation, lose parts of national territories to China and Pakistan only for pleasing the noble prize committee by projecting himself as a "peaceful" leader and get a noble peace prize, whats wrong when a real messenger of peace working tirelessly since decades to bring peace in the world in trying for a noble peace prize? RS has done far more work than many noble peace prize winners. If Obama can be given Noble peace prize just for withdrawing army from Iraq, RS deserves much more.

May 03, 2016

Anonymous said…

You must check your facts I guess, there are two cases still pending on this guy including one on cheque fraud and attempted rape. This is what people who interacted/lived with him say, when he was a nobody in shimogga in Karnataka. But you verify it for yourself, since your trust on him is much more than mine. Cheers

May 04, 2016

kuldip said…

This double siri is as much exploiter as are other saints. His shanti ashram in hardwar employs like other ashrams minor boys who work from 4 am to 11 pm with little break. In 2002 he used to pay them Rs. 800 to 1200 per month besides roti (without a tint of butter/ghee) and potato or dal. Hardly they are given parsad from the bhandara (community meal fed to idle saints and office staff) Today he might be paying 1500-PM but no change in diet and timings. The PF ESI or leave or any such labour benefits are never allowed to them. A mere doubt is sufficient ground for their thrashing. If such a exploiter can be granted a nobel prize, the prize itself is matter of shame.

May 05, 2016

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Warning bells for India: Tribal exploitation by powerful corporate interests may turn into international issue

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit.

Gujarat Bitcoin scam worth Rs 5,000 crore "linked" with BJP leaders: Need for Supreme Court monitored probe

By Shaktisinh Gohil* BJP hit a jackpot in the form of demonetisation, which it used as an alibi to convert black money into white in Gujarat. Even as party scrambles for answers of how the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose director is BJP president Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days, and how Rs 3118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district cooperative banks linked with Gujarat BJP leaders, a new mega Bitcoin scam, worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unraveled.

Counterview

Search This Blog