The Hindu : Other States News : President pays homage to Mahatma at Porbandar

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President pays homage to Mahatma at Porbandar

Manas Dasgupta

Presides over all-religion prayer meeting at Kirti Mandir

Pratibha Patil also visited Kasturba Memorial among other places
Chief Minister Narendra Modi accompanied the President

AHMEDABAD: President Pratibha Patil, currently on a five-day visit to Gujarat, led the nation in paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi on Friday.

She presided over an all-religion prayer meeting at Kirti Mandir, ancestral house of the Father of the Nation at Porbandar, and later visited the Kasturba Memorial and other tourist spots at the birthplace of the Mahatma. She was accompanied by Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Ms. Patil and her entourage later went to Dwarka where the President offered puja at the famous Dwarkadhish temple and also visited the Shardapeeth Shankaracharya Math.

Visits Gir forest

From Dwarka, the Presidential team visited Gir forest, the only abode of the Asiatic Lions, to see the big cats in their natural habitat. She is due to spend the night at “Sinh Sadan,” the tourist headquarter in the Gir forest. For the last few days, the State Forest Department was making efforts to locate some of the lion prides in the forest to enable the President to have a night view of the animals in their natural habitat.

Gandhi Jayanti was also celebrated in the Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad by holding an all-religion prayer meeting, but shifting of the venue this year antagonised many of the old Ashramites. Instead of the front of the Hriday Kunj, the house where the Mahatma lived when he was in the Sabarmati Ashram, the prayer meeting this year was held in the backside of the Ashram which was resented by the old-timers saying it was against the age-old tradition.

The Ashram secretary, Amrut Modi, however, said the venue was shifted only because of the oppressive heat this year as the backside of Hriday Kunj was blessed with shades from long trees.

He disagreed that shifting of the prayer meeting merely from the front to backside of the same premises amounted to any violation of the tradition.

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