NEW DELHI, Jan 25:
US President Barack Obama, who has often talked about the influence of Mahatma Gandhi on his life, today paid homage to the ‘apostle of peace’ at the Rajghat memorial here describing his spirit as a “rare gift” to the world.
The American President placed a wreath, showered rose petals at Gandhi’s memorial and bowed before it with folded hands for some time.
“What Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Said that remains true today: The spirit of Gandhi is very much alive in India today and it remains a rare gift to the world. May we always live in this spirit of love and peace among all people and nations,” Obama wrote in the visitors’ book at the memorial.
Obama went straight to Rajghat after his ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. During his last visit here in 2010 also, he had paid tributes to Gandhi at the memorial.
The American President was presented a replica of Gandhi’s famous ‘charkha’ by the officials of the memorial.
Obama also planted a sapling of the Peepal tree (Ficus religiosa) at the Rajghat.
He has mentioned Gandhi on several occasions, even in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in 2009.
Replying to a question on who would be his most favourite personality, dead or alive, to have dinner with, he had then said it would be Gandhi.
“He’s somebody who I find a lot of inspiration in. He inspired Dr King (Martin Luther King Jr), so if it hadn’t been for the non-violent movement in India, you might not have seen the same non-violent movement for civil rights here in the United States,” he had said.
Meanwhile, i n a goodwill gesture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today gifted a piece of Indo-US history to President Barack Obama in the form of a copy of the first telegram from the United States to India’s Constituent Assembly in 1946.
The telegram was sent by then Acting Secretary of State Dean Acheson to Sachchidananda Sinha, the provisional Chairman of the Constituent Assembly.
Modi presented the copy after he recieved President Obama at the Hyderabad House and before proceeding to the high level delegation level talks on various issues.
The copy was the reproduction of the telegram which was read out at the inaugural sitting of the Constituent Assembly of India on December 9, 1946.
In the telegram, Acheson says: “With the approach of December 9, I extend to you as provisional chairman of the Constituent Assembly and through you to the Indian people the sincere good wishes of the United States Government and of the people of United States for a successful conclusion of the great task you are about to undertake.
“India has a great contribution to make to the peace, stability and cultural advancement of mankind and your deliberations will be watched with deep interest and hope by freedom loving people throughout the entire world.”
The Prime Minister gifted the historic item to Obama on the eve of India’s Republic Day. (PTI)
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