Diyas brighten White HouseCHIDANAND RAJGHATTA
TIMES NEWS NETWORK< SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2003 12:05:04 AM >
WASHINGTON: The sonorous strains of the Sanskrit prayer " Asato ma sadh gamaya; Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya " and the fragrance of incense and lamps wafted through the White House on Thursday evening as the US Administration officially celebrated for the first time, Deepavali, the Indian festival of lights, in recognition of the growing presence of the Indian community in the United States.
With President Bush away in Hawaii on his way back from a six-day trip to Asia, Bush's chief political strategist Karl Rove presided over the celebration, held in the "Indian Treaty Room," although the venue had little to do with Asian Indians, as the community is officially known.
After lighting an oversized brass lamp, Rove conveyed greetings from Bush and said that it was appropriate that the universal values of Deepavali was being observed in the "Indian Treaty Room" which was where the Bretton Woods pact - establishing the International Monetary Fund (IMF)- and the United Nations Charter were signed.
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Prominent Indian-Americans in the Bush Administration, including Neil Patel, who works in Vice President Dick Cheney's office, and Gopal Khanna, CIO of Peace Corps, also participated in the celebrations.
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=250600&Curpg=1Pandering to Eastern Indian presence, have to wonder when Rove is going to run for pResident...:wtf: He already has that position...what was I thinking....?