Modi attends Gandhi Peace Prize ceremony after early morning attack
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday attended the presentation of the Gandhi Peace Prize at the Rashtrapati Bhavan soon after he presided over a CCS meeting following an early morning strike by the IAF on a JeM terror camp across the Line of Control (LoC).
In his address at the ceremony, Modi apologised for arriving late on account of another important meeting – of the Cabinet Committee on Security.
“I apologise for coming late, I was busy in another meeting… This year is important because this is 150th anniversary year of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi.
“This prize is given to those who give their all in promoting the values by which he (Gandhi) lived and imbibed and which he continuously tried to infuse the society with,” Modi said while congratulating the prize winners.
President Ram Nath Kovind presented the Gandhi Peace Prize to the Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari, jointly with the Akshaya Patra Foundation for 2015,; to the Sulabh International for 2016; the Ekal Abhiyan Trust for 2017; and to Yohei Sasakawa for 2018.
They were awarded for the work done by them in feeding and educating poor, encouraging sanitation, and eradication of leprosy.
“From Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States to Nelson Mandela in South Africa and Lech Walesa in Poland, a dazzling galaxy of statespersons has learnt and borrowed from Gandhiji.
“Gandhiji and his thoughts are invaluable to any understanding of contemporary human history, and of the quest to redress oppression and inequity,” Kovind said in his address.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) jets early on Tuesday hit the biggest training camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) group in Pakistan, eliminating a very large number of terrorists and their trainers.