Written by london Swaminathan

swami_48@yahoo.com

Date: 24 OCTOBER 2019
British Summer Time uploaded in London – 16-47

Post No. 7134

Pictures are taken from various sources; beware of copyright rules; don’t use them without permission; this is a non- commercial, educational blog; posted in swamiindology.blogspot.com and tamilandvedas.com simultaneously. Average hits per day for both the blogs 12,000.

I had to attend two Deepa Avali (Lamps Row) functions yesterday; the first one was at the chapel of Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow area of greater London. We do weekly Hindu Bhajan at the chapel every Wednesday and so we did the Diwali (Deepa avali) event yesterday. About 100 patients, staff, volunteers and guests attended the event.

After the prayers, sweets were distributed. An outside Bhajan troupe and Hare Krishna temple priest did the prayers along with weekly volunteers Mrs Annapurani Panchanathan and Mr Balasubramanian.

Participants were very enthusiastic about the individual Aarti in the Damodhar Puja done by  Hare Krishna temple priest. Hindu Chaplain V. V. Swaminathan thanked everyone at the end.

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Inside British Parliament

Every year Hindu Forum of Britain celebrates the Deepavali on the terrace of the British Parliament. Anyone would appreciate the beautiful view of Thames River from the terrace , with colourful ferries running every minute.

Bob Blackman MP and the leader of the Hindu Parliamentary group and Lord Dholakia were the sponsors. Mr Blackman is known to every active Hindu in London. He visits at least nine Hindu temples on Deepavali day. Yesterday he joked in the meeting saying his Diwali begins in September and ends in December every year. He had to attend so many Diwali related events during this period.

While speaking Bob received big applause from the audience for supporting the Indian Government action in Kashmir. He praised the Indian government for giving equal law to every citizen of India. He condemned the planned Pro Pakistani rally towards High Commission of India on Deepavali day (27-10-2019). He told the audience that the government would take appropriate action to prevent any untoward incident.

(During last Pakistani Muslim demonstration, they attacked High Commission building. When Indian PM Modi visited two years ago, they burnt Indian National Flag along with Anti Indian Dravidians and Khalistanis, after everyone left the area).

Bob praised the Hindus for living peacefully without disturbing anyone. He warned the Hindu women to be careful on Diwali day while they visit temples. Lot of Gold Chain snatching incidents happen during that period.

Bob wished everyone Subha Diwali.

Lord Dholakia mentioned about the 39 dead bodies that were found on the day and asked all the Hindus to pray for the departed souls (39 immigrants from East European countries died mysteriously in the frozen compartment of a lorry). He asked Hindus to come forward and take part in politics. He praised the law-abiding Hindus and said even inside the prisons we find very few Hindus where as Muslims occupy 25 percent.

Earlier President of the Hindu Forum Truptiben Patel welcomed the gathering and said the 2 percent Hindus in the country contribute a lot for the development of the country.

(My Comments– Every council in London has got lot of Muslim councillors; the current Mayor of London is of Pakistani origin. Hindus very rarely take part in politics. Most of the National Lottery funding goes to Christian and Muslim organisations. British Government also helps Christian charities which believe in conversions. Oxfam, Christian Aid and many proselytising organisations get government funding.  During Labour rule millions of Muslims were allowed to enter the country as refugees. Muslim chaplains in hospitals and prisons outnumber Christian chaplains. Most of the refugees support the Labour Party. Now they are numerically more. Every Muslim in Britain has got 4 to 16 children whereas Hindus have one or two children).

–subham–