Hypocrite McDermott Welcomes Ghandi Statue

Tweet Would Ghandi have voted for Obama's war budget as McDermott did, saying Obama "deserved his vote?" Did the people of Iraq, Afghanistan and now Pakistan deserve what resulted from his vote? At least Inslee voted against it. Linda J.

http://www.indiawest.com/readmore.aspx?id=1537&sid=1

SEATTLE — A torrential Seattle winter rain failed to dampen the spirits of hundreds of people who gathered at the Bellevue Public Library Oct. 17 along with Indian Ambassador Meera Shankar and Congressman Jim McDermott to witness the unveiling of a life-size statue of Mahatma Gandhi.

The 1000-pound statue was a gift from the Indian government. As the signature prayer of “Raghupati Raghav” was recited, the statue was unveiled to reveal a Gandhi cast in bronze, a staff in his right hand and sandals on his feet.

Those closest to the statue surged forward to touch Gandhi’s feet or simply held their hands in prayer before him.

For Anjali Sachdev, the regional director of the National Federation of Indo-American Associations which was instrumental in making the event possible, the gift to Washington state was the realization of a dream she and others at the NFIA had been working on for the past year.

“When in Delhi, I followed up with the request to the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and since then despite hurdles, we finally got the gift here in Seattle,” she told India-West.

In her address to the gathering, the Indian ambassador elaborated on the reasons why Gandhi’s philosophy continues to have global relevance. “Using power of ideas and power of words to bring a colonized country to freedom by abjuring violence path was a revolutionary step,” she said.

Furthermore, Gandhi emphasized that the means are as important as the end, and the pursuit of end, no matter how noble, will distort the goal if the means are violent, Shankar pointed out.

Gandhi was also ahead of his time in being green. He insisted on drinking goat milk, farming and spinning his own cloth. “We must take from the earth only what’s necessary and give back to the earth,” Shankar said.

Film celebrity Girish Karnard in his speech spoke about the need for creating awareness of Gandhi’s philosophy globally, especially in those regions where violence is an accepted way of life.

NFIA president Chandu Patel expressed his gratitude to Ambassador Shankar and her team for making special efforts to visit Seattle for the landmark event. Echoing Gandhi’s philosophy of peace and non-violence, Patel spoke on the relevance of such ideals in this time.

Congressmen Jay Inslee and Jim McDermott also acknowledged and applauded NFIA’s effort in creating history by installing this monument of peace in Bellevue. The six-hour long event included cultural events of bhajans, dances and bhangra by young children.

FIA-Washington president Lavanya Reddy used the occasion to reach out to supporters and member associations, urging them to begin a tradition of feeding the homeless at least once a month in cities throughout Washington state, and to contribute toward establishing a scholarship for college students specializing in Gandhian studies.