The Hindu : National : Congress gets ready for international conference on Satyagraha

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Sunday, Jan 28, 2007
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National

National

Congress gets ready for international conference on Satyagraha

Special Correspondent

Meet to address ideological questions agitating the contemporary world

PHOTO : SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY

THE GANDHIAN LEGACY: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi alongwith Gandhi's granddaughter, Tara Gandhi Bhattacharya (left), lighting the lamp to inaugurate an exhibition on ``Satyagraha'' in New Delhi on Saturday.

NEW DELHI: A galaxy of Nobel Laureates, thinkers, delegations from major political parties from various regions of the world, besides policymakers, will take part in a two-day international conference starting on Monday. It is being organised by the Indian National Congress to commemorate the centenary of Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha.

In the run-up to the conference, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday inaugurated an exhibition at Vigyan Bhawan, the venue of the meet. Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Union Minister, Members of Parliament and other party leaders were present on the occasion.

Ms. Gandhi will inaugurate the conference while Dr. Manmohan Singh and Archbishop Desmond Tutu will address the concluding session. Besides ArchbishopTutu, Grameen Bank founder Mohammad Yunus, Ahmed Kathrade, who symbolised the historic struggle against the anti-apartheid regime in South Africa along with Nelson Mandela, Peruvian economist Hermando de Soto, leading thinker Gene Sharp, Sri Lanka's A.T. Ariyaratne, winner of the Gandhi Peace Prize, Thailand's leading peace activist Chaiwat Satha-anand, Lord Bikhu Parekh and Mahatma Gandhi's grand-daughter Ela Gandhi, are among the dignitaries who would be attending the conference.

Senior party leader and conference spokesperson Devendra Nath Dwivedi said the subjects around which the two-day deliberations were structured "address the ideological and moral questions that are agitating the contemporary world and which at the same time relate to the core beliefs and prime concerns which have gone into the making of the world view of Mahatma Gandhi."

Themes

The conference themes — conflict resolution; peace building; disarmament; poverty alleviation; social developments; empowerment; and dialogue between peoples and cultures — represent the vital areas of concern and of practical relevance for India and entire world alike.

Mr. Dwivedi said the subjects also reflected the priority items on the Congress Party's national and international agenda and the principal thrust of the two-day meet was to give practical content to the concepts of freedom, equality, justice, peace and essential unity of humankind as well as of diverse cultures and religious beliefs.

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