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President celebrates 73rd birthday

By Manas Dasgupta

SURAT OCT. 15. The president, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, today celebrated his 73rd birthday among religious heads and children at Surat in south Gujarat.

Termed as the "Surat Spiritual Declaration'' and signed by representatives of various religions in the country in the presence of Mr. Kalam at the end of an inter-religion conclave, "unity of mind,'' the President's move was an attempt to bring about harmonious exchanges among various ethnic groups to take the country towards peace, prosperity, happiness and harmony.

The "Surat Declaration'' brought out after deliberations between the heads of various religious sects in the country who had gathered in Surat on the occasion, five salient points for harmonious relations among various religious sects. It emphasised the need for multi-religious gatherings at least once every month in various parts of the country to spread the message of peace and harmony and understand each other's viewpoints better.

Various religious organisations have been advised to launch beneficial projects in healthcare, education and water supply which besides generating employment would help bring people of various faiths closer. It emphasised the need for periodical inter-faith dialogues between various religious and spiritual heads to help sort out differences, if any.

The Declaration called for the setting up of an autonomous national-level institution to preach various religious faiths that would help allay misgivings about each other and teach people love and compassion forgetting hatred. It suggested that the educational institutions of one religion should admit children from other religions to bring about unity and harmony right from childhood and remove religious segregation.

Among those who have signed the Declaration is the Jain Swetambar Terapanth sect seer, Mahapragna, who had organised the religious congregation and the President's host in Surat, Moulana Wahiuddin Khan, Rahul Bodhi, the president of the Akhil Bharatiya Boudhha Sangh, Brahmakumari Swadeshdidi, Bishop Thomas Dabre and others.

The President made a departure from the protocol of celebrating the birthday in the Rashtrapati Bhavan and deliberately chose the date for spending the day with the religious heads. He took time off to accept birthday greetings from hundreds of schoolchildren in Surat and addressed a mass gathering.

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