Manmohan Singh takes oath as PM for 2nd term

22 May 2009, 1838 hrs IST, AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday took oath along with 19 Cabinet colleagues to begin his second five-year term at the head of a multi-party government in which his Congress party is the overwhelmingly dominant partner after a sweeping win in general elections.

There were four new faces in the first edition of the Union Cabinet that is expected to be followed up by another expansion of the Council of Ministers in the next few days. All the others were in the outgoing Cabinet. All but two were from the Congress party.

Overseen by President Pratibha Patil, Manmohan Singh, 76, was the first to take oath at a simple and brief function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. This is the first time she has administered the oath of office.

Among the new entrants in the Cabinet were Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress leader who trounced the Communists in West Bengal, Rajasthan Congress unit president CP Joshi, Congress general secretary M Veerappa Moily, and former Karnataka chief minister S M Krishna.

The portfolios were not announced but speculation centred around two names as the next foreign minister -- Kamal Nath, who has been a successful commerce and industry minister and who led the developing nations' charge in the WTO negotiations; and Krishna, who was in many ways responsible for making Bangalore the country's IT capital.

Pranab Mukherjee, who was external affairs minister in the last Cabinet, is widely tipped to become finance minister, a portfolio he held 25 years ago, while Chidambaram and Antony are likely to retain their respective portfolios of home and defence.

The prime minister's A-team comprises Pranab Mukherjee, Chidambaram, Antony, Krishna, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Veerappa Moily, S. Jaipal Reddy, Kamal Nath, Vayalar Ravi, Meira Kumar, Murli Deora, Kapil Sibal, Ambika Soni, B.K. Handique, Anand Sharma and Joshi.

Besides Mamata Banerjee, the other non-Congress leader who found Cabinet berth was Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar.

The oath taking ceremony in the Rashtrapati Bhavan was attended among others by Vice President Hamid Ansari, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and BJP leader L K Advani. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, former Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Lalu Prasad, Ram Vilas Paswan and service chiefs were also present.

Performance, experience and continuity have been the important criteria that have gone into the making of Manmohan Singh's new Cabinet, say party insiders. The Prime Minister has already chalked out a 100-day action plan for his government.

"In the case of Moily and Ghulam Nabi Azad, they served the party well and were also instrumental in notching up impressive victories in key states," said a senior Congress functionary.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said the second round of oath taking will cover include Cabinet ministers, ministers of state with independent charge and ministers of state with representation given to allies.

Anand Sharma, who earlier was a minister of state for external affairs and also held independent charge of the information and broadcasting ministry after Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi was hospitalised with a stroke, was promoted to Cabinet rank.

So was Bijoy Krishna Handique, who is from Assam and was the minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers and parliamentary affairs.

Heavyweight Arjun Singh has been dropped from the Cabinet, and not just because of his poor health. Some of his decisions as human resource development minister have been questioned and he has been accused of sitting over important decisions in the field of higher education, a subject close to the Prime Minister's heart. Arjun Singh is likely to be made a state governor.

Mamata Banerjee is likely to get railways, a portfolio she has held earlier in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, while Pawar is set to retain his food and agriculture portfolio.

"I am happy that both the Prime Minister and the Congress president have recognised my work and that I discharged my work creditably," said Vayalar Ravi, who held both parliamentary affairs and the overseas Indian affairs ministries.

Joshi, who turned the fortunes around for the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections in Rajasthan by leading the praty to victory in 19 of its 25 seats, admitted he was surprised to get a cabinet berth. "I am humbled and thank the party leadership for reposing faith in me."

After the failure of talks with the DMK on the distribution of ministerial portfolios, crisis managers in the Congress thought it would be best to go ahead with the first round of oath taking where sure-shot Cabinet ministers would be included.

With the DMK insisting on seven ministerial berths - three Cabinet, two ministers of state (MoS) with independent charge and two other MoS - Congress managers decided they would engage in another round of discussions to arrive at a compromise formula.

The DMK is making a bid for key ministries including surface transport, railways, IT and communications and tourism.

"By this weekend we will sort out matters on berth allocation with DMK. And in the next round we also have to include the youth brigade," said a senior official in the Prime Minister's Office.

Those expected to be inducted in the second round include Salman Khurshid, Jairam Ramesh, Girija Vyas, Vilas Muttemwar and National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah.

Manmohan Singh will retain the portfolios he was planning to allocate to DMK nominees till differences with the key ally are sorted out.

with thanks : source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Manmohan-Singh-takes-oath-as-PM/articleshow/4564549.cms

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Sikh delegation led by Sarna crosses over to Pakistan to meet PM and President

JAGMOHAN SINGH
Thursday, 21 May 2009
AMRITSAR: Thirteen members delegation led by Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Parmajit Singh Sarna Thursday went to Pakistan to take up the matter of Hindu and Sikh families who were rendered homeless by the Taliban in Pakistan’s in the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) in Swat valley.

Sarna before crossing over to Pakistan said that he along with his delegation of senior executive of DSGMC were going to Pakistan to meet Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari to take up the matter of Hindu and Sikh families who were still turning pillar to post for two square meals after being rendered by Talibans.

Sarna said, “We have plan to meet Pakistan’s prime minister and President with regard to the adequate arrangement of Homeless Sikh and Hindu families for their rehabilitation besides economic help. Presently most of the uprooted families were taking shelter at various
Sikh shrines in Pakistan including Nankana Sahib, Panja Sahib and Gurdwdara Dera Sahib”.

Sarna said that DSGMC has passed resolution to contribute help of Rs. 2 crore and would seek permission from Pakistan authorities to disburse amount among the affected families. Sarna said that they were on fifteen days visa to Pakistan.

Earlier on May 1, SGPC (Shriomani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee) President Avtar Singh Makkar in letter to Prime Minister Dr. Mamnmohan Singh has urged him to force Pakistan Government to protect Sikh minority against fiendishness of Talibans.

Makkar in his letter said that the barbarous activities of Talibans have committed another outrage of pulling downs houses of innocent Sikh families in Pakistan in retaliation to the refusal of Sikhs to pay jazia.

It may be mentioned here that last month on April 30 Taliban outfit had demolished 11 homes of members of the minority Sikh community in Pakistan's troubled Aurakzai tribal region after they failed to pay jiziya or a tax levied on non-Muslims.

Sikhs were rendered homeless on the orders of Taliban commander Hakeemullah Mehsud, the head of the militants in Aurakzai Agency and a deputy of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud. The militants acted after a deadline set by them for payment of jiziya by the Sikhs expired on April 30. Sikhs were living in Aurakzai Agency for centuries; the Taliban asked them earlier this month to pay Rs 50 million a year as jiziya. The militants claimed this was being done as Shariah or Islamic law had been enforced in the area and all non-Muslims had to pay "protection money".

There are about 35 Sikh families living in Ferozkhel near Merozai in Aurakzai Agency.

with thanks : source : http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/view/16762/38/

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Twenty five years of hatred & Dr. Manmohan Singh.

After twenty five years of hatred, Sikhs are looking ahead, towards Congress just because of the Charishma of Dr. Manmohan Singh. After 1984 riots the Sikh Bastians were converted into BJP strongholds. The traditional vote bank of congress was turned into strongholds of BJP.

But the elevation of Dr. Manmohan singh not only healed the sentiments of Sikhs in India, it also gave the nation a most learned prime minister under whose leadership India got the successive growth of 9% for four consecutive years and even in times of the worst recession, it attained a growth of 6%. Today, Congress has won, because every one is looking towards Dr. Manmohan singh as the best reformist. Indeed, it was the fruitful decision taken by Mrs. Sonia Gandhi.

Dr. Manmohan singh must, now, cultivate a feeling amongst the masses that India is a most secular country where riots of any kind are totally BARRED. Hope the two national partys, will realise that Indian’s are now educated & mature enough to cast the vote only for the PROGRESSIVE GOVERNMENT and not for 1984 or Godhra. JAI HO.

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Sikh Art: mool mantar through oil paintings

Posted by Reema

Thematically Sikh paintings are rare. Thus, when I came across the paintings below, I thought I should share. The oil paintings below are the work of Jaswant Singh Zafar. He’s a poet, photographer, and painter in his free time and an engineer in Ludhiana by day. This year, he’s spending his free time creating a series of paintings under the theme of ‘Gurbani.’ The paintings completed thus far weave the mool mantar through various aspects of nature, shapes, and other backgrounds.

At the end of the year, the series will be in an exhibition at the Artmosphere Gallery in Ludhiana. Artmosphere was created to provide a platform for budding artists in Ludhiana and Punjab such as Jaswant Singh Zafar. Such an endeavor cheers me and gives hope that the visual arts scene there is growing.

with thanks : source : http://thelangarhall.com/archives/3288

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Minar-e-Khalsa by Sd. Gulab Singh ji

Gulab Singh learned to engrave from his father Sardar Santokh Singh and began an independent studio where he would do engraving on industrial moulds. During these years, as the family was religiously inclined, he got involved in local Gurudwara activities and developed his faith in Sikh religion and learned about the history of Sikh gurus and the entire Sikh and Punjabi movement after the 10th guru, Guru Gobind Singh.

He started to dedicate more of his time to religious activities and while working he created few bass-reliefs of Sikh Gurus. Later this religious passion gave him a vision to create his first work Minar-e-Khalsa, which took four years of research, hard work and economic investment to materialize. The project was self financed with little help from the local Sikh community. The bass-relief was inaugurated on Baisakhi of the 300th year celebration of Birth of Khalsa at Hazoor Sahib, Nanded.

with thanks : source : http://www.minarekhalsa.com

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Pak vows to protect Sikhs from Taliban; Canada announces aid

Toronto (IANS): A visiting Pakistan minister vowed to protect Sikhs from the Taliban even as Canada announced $5 million for Pakistan's Sikh families who have fled the Swat Valley after the imposition of 'jaziya' (tax on non-Muslims) by the Taliban.

Announcing the $5-million package at a round-table here, Canada's newest Sikh MP Tim Uppal said: "I am pleased to announce on behalf of the prime minister that the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has committed 5 million dollars to the humanitarian effort to help those people displaced by the conflict."

Mr. Uppal, who is the ruling party MP from Edmonton, said: "We call upon the government of Pakistan to ensure the security and safety of all its citizens, including religious minorities."

Pakistan's Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, who was a special invitee to the round-table, said: "I want the minorities to know that they have a brother and a friend in the government of Pakistan who will do all in his power to stop atrocities on Sikhs in Pakistan."

When asked whether the Pakistan government will compensate the Sikhs for the money taken away by the Taliban, the minister only said: "I strongly condemn the jaziya collected from Sikhs by the Taliban."

The Pakistani government has announced a token compensation of $120 each to the displaced Sikh families, many of whom have sought refuge in the historic Sikh shrine at Hasan Abdal.

Asked by round-table convener and filmmaker Roger Nair how Pakistan could justify such a small amount, the minister said Sikh refugees are "still in a better shape than many of over a million or so refugees since they have a better organised structure in the form of gurdwaras".

The Toronto-based South Asians for Human Rights Association (SAHRA), which organised the round-table discussion with the visiting Pakistani minister, offered to sponsor 50 displaced Sikh and Hindu families as refugees to Canada.

"We have written to the Canadian government to sponsor these families from Pakistan. We will work with both the governments and local bodies to identify displaced families due to the Jaziya tax and sponsor them," said SAHRA chairman Nair.

He also demanded the abolition of the blasphemy law in Pakistan under which the murderers of a 27-year-old Hindu worker Jagdish Kumar last year went unpunished.

with thanks : source : http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200905191211.htm

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First Sikh mayor sworn in

Newbury's first ethnic minority mayor swears oath of office during civic cermony at The Corn Exchange

NEWBURY’S first ethnic minority mayor addressed the public during his official mayor-making ceremony on Sunday (17).
In a speech delivered to more than 100 local residents at The Corn Exchange, Kuldip Singh Kang said he was pleased to have the honour and privilege of being appointed his post.
After leading the procession of councillors through heavy rain from the town hall, outgoing mayor Phil Barnett recounted some of the 294 events he had attended over the past year.
These included the recent 1940s fundraising concert at Newbury Racecourse, visiting five of Newbury’s twin towns, meeting the Queen at Vodafone, attending 300 birthday parties and travelling in a horse drawn carriage through Northbrook Street on National Bereavement Day.
He said that he had given up 1450 hours of his time and travelled over 4,400 miles as mayor.
Nominating the new mayor, town councillor Adrian Edwards said that he had known Mr Singh Kang for 20 years, since he bought the Fifth Road store and post office after moving to the town from Slough.
Mr Edwards had then helped Mr Singh Kang to stand for election to the town council two years ago, as a Conservative candidate for Falkland ward.
Mr Singh Kang said that during his year as mayor, he would support local charities and help St George’s Church at Wash Common explore the possibility of becoming carbon neutral.
He thanked his wife of 29 years, his parents, two brothers, his sister, and his three grandchildren for supporting him at the ceremony. While he will practice his Sikh faith, he will continue the mayoral tradition of having a church chaplain, and the ceremony was followed by a civic service in St Nicolas’ Church.
“I am very pleased to be standing here today supported by four generations of my family,” he said.
Former town council leader Ian Grose was appointed deputy mayor.
During the ceremony, town marshal Dave Stubbs and town crier Brian Sylvester were awarded medals for 10 years of service to Newbury Town Council.

with thanks : source : http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID=10056

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Slough crowns Sikh Mayor and Sikh Deputy Mayor

Cllr Joginder Bal has become the Mayor for Slough; he is joined by another Sikh Cllr Jagjit Singh as the Deputy Mayor

The announcement was made at annual general meeting of Slough Borough Council at Slough Town Hall.

Cllr Joginder Singh is a grandfather and a dad-of-four, he was the former deputy mayor, took over from Cllr Raja Zarait. He was elected as a councillor for the Farnham ward in 2001 and is now the fifth Sikh mayor for the town.

He managed to beat of stiff competition by Cllr Brian Hetwitt who was also nominated for the role by the BILLD and Tory councilors.

After being sworn into the role with the help of council chief executive Ruth Bagley, Cllr Bal said: “I got into politics to serve people and not for personal satisfaction. I will promote Slough wherever I go.”

Cllr Bal hit the headlines last year after he was attacked with a cross bow outside his home in Northampton Avenue.

He was hospitalised for a few days but recovered and returned to his job as a taxi driver.

with thanks : source : http://www.emgonline.co.uk/news.php?news=5134

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Sikh wisdom

by Miroslav Volf

One of the most recognizable pieces of religious architecture in the world is the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, the most significant place of worship of the Sikhs. The upper part of this ornate rectangular marble structure is covered in gold. I saw the gleaming temple early in the morning, before sunrise, when it was bathed in soft artificial light. It stood immovable as a huge gilded rock, its reflected image dancing gently on the surface of the surrounding pool.

I was in Amritsar as a Christian consultant for a meeting of the Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders, organized by my friend Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein. I had written a position paper to serve as a basis for discussions that would include the Dalai Lama and the chief rabbi of Jerusalem. Six writers of position papers representing different world religions had discussed their drafts with one another and with a larger interfaith group of scholars. It was a fascinating exercise. As I was writing, I was aided by wisdom from other faith traditions. What I presented as genuinely my own was in part received from others.

I grew up solidly Protestant in an overwhelmingly Catholic and Orthodox environment controlled by aggressively secular communists. Unlike the communists, those in our Protestant tribe nurtured a sense of the holy. But we differed from the Catholics and the Orthodox in that for us holiness was not to be located in time and space. The eternal and omnipresent God was holy; people could be holy if they made themselves available for God; times and places were not holy. We did not follow a liturgical calendar closely, and we met for worship in remodeled rooms of an ordinary house on an ordinary street. As a child of a pastor, I lived in that house; the neighbor kids and I played soccer in its yard and marbles on the patch of dirt in front of it. As examples of sacred architecture, the places where I experienced God—in restless rebellion and not just in sweet surrender—were the polar opposites of the Golden Temple.

At the temple I walked barefoot and with covered head around the holy pool in which people took ritual baths. I observed the people quietly streaming to the temple and walking by the place where Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji is kept, the holy book which ultimately makes the place holy. But I didn't feel spiritually pulled in. I was a sympathetic observer, learning, questioning, puzzling over things, appreciating. I remained an outsider, not a participant.

Yet I took with me something unforgettable, a nugget of enacted religious wisdom that I cherish more than I would a piece of that temple's gold.

The next day, as I walked one more time within the temple complex, I wanted to buy a souvenir for my two boys. Then it dawned on me: I hadn't seen a vendor or a shop anywhere on the temple premises. "Thousands of religious tourists mill around here every day," I thought. "There must be a place to buy souvenirs!" But there wasn't.

You had to leave the temple complex and step onto the profane ground of surrounding streets to satisfy your tourist appetite. There peddlers were as busy as anywhere else in the world, and I found what I was looking for—a small kirpan, a ritual sword that all baptized Sikh wear. But not on the holy site—there the only commercial transaction that took place was the purchase of a "ticket" to walk across the bridge to the temple in the middle of the lake. The ticket was a bowl of porridge, the size of which depended on how much you paid. You could eat some of it, but you were expected to put at least a portion of it into large bowls. When the bowls were filled, they were carried off to feed the poor.

The contrast between the Golden Temple and other religious sites I've seen could not be greater. Everywhere else, greedy people—often religious leaders with business managers—were trying to cash in on the devotion of visitors. Here that devotion was channeled into feeding the hungry. I was reminded of the story of Jesus' cleansing of the temple, recorded in all four Gospels. "And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple. . . . 'Is it not written,' he said, '"My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations"? But you have made it a den of robbers.'" The Gospels consistently tie Jesus' death to the cleansing of the temple. Mark's account continues, "And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him."

I came away from the Golden Temple with a nugget of wisdom—houses of worship should not be sites of commercial activity, but places of gift giving to the needy, just as faith itself is not to be bought and sold but freely given. That Sikh wisdom turned out to be buried treasure of my own faith.

with thanks : source : http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=6937

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Sidhu manages hat - trick in Amritsar.

After various ups & downs, after trailing for a long time, atlast Sidhu manages the hat trick in Amritsar. At one stage it was announced that position of Sidhu was very bad in the elections. But making a comeback, he won the prestigious Amritsar Lok Sabha seat. Our heartiest congratulations to Mr. Sidhu.

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£50,000 reward offered to catch Sikh temple arsonists

By Gemma Collins

SHOCKED members of London’s Sikh community who watched their temple go up in flames in a suspected arson in March have pledged today fight for justice with a £50,000 reward to track the culprits.

The committee of East London’s Gudwara Sikh Sangat at Harley Grove in Bow are treating the attack as “murder” because their holy books were destroyed.

The community’s 14 Saroops, the Sikhs’ holy books, were lost as 40ft flames swept through the building and broke through the roof.

Committee members holding a news conference this-afternoon in a tent in the small park opposite claimed police could be doing more to catch those responsible.

ATTACK ON RELIGION

Temple trustee Jagmohan Singh said: “This is more than just an arson attack on the building. It was an attack on the Sikh religion itself.

“Police could be doing more—so we have to assist them with the reward. The community won’t sleep until the intruder is caught and brought to justice.”

The community pledged to rebuild the temple which could cost an estimated £4 million.

They also plan a march on May 24 to show the attack “will not be tolerated.”

A police investigation began after eye-witnesses reported an intruder in the temple moments before the blaze on March 16, but no arrests have been made.

Detectives are appealing to anyone with information to contact Limehouse CID on 020-7275 4750, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800-555111.

with thanks : source : http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/content/towerhamlets/advertiser/news/story.aspx?brand=ELAOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsela&itemid=WeED15%20May%202009%2016%3A46%3A39%3A387

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