Deepavali inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list
New Delhi (PTI:) India's Deepavali -- the festival of light -- was on Wednesday inscribed on the UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The decision was taken during a key meeting of UNESCO being hosted at the Red Fort in Delhi.
This is the first time that India is hosting a session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH).
The 20th session of the panel is underway from December 8 to 13 at the Red Fort.
Chants of 'Vande Mataram' and 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' rent the air as UNESCO announced that the Deepavali festival has been added to the coveted list.
India currently has 15 elements inscribed on the UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and these include the Kumbh Mela, Durga Puja of Kolkata, Garba dance of Gujarat, yoga, the tradition of Vedic chanting and Ramlila - the traditional performance of the epic 'Ramayana'.
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Will not accept 'Veer Savarkar Award' nor attend the ceremony: Shashi Tharoor
Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi (PTI): Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday categorically stated that he would not accept an award named after VD Savarkar, nor attend a related event, even as a senior party colleague wanted the Congress MP to not accept any honour named after the ideologue whom he claimed "bowed before the British."
Tharoor said that he will not accept the "Veer Savarkar Award" and also won't attend the event where it will be presented in the absence of clarifications about its nature or the organisation presenting it.
Tharoor, the MP from Thiruvananthapuram, also said that "it was irresponsible on the part of the organisers to announce my name without my having agreed to receive it".
Earlier in the day, Congress leader K Muraleedharan told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram that no party member, including Tharoor, should accept any award in the name of Veer Savarkar "as he had bowed before the British."
Muraleedharan said that he does not believe that Tharoor will accept the award as doing so would insult and embarrass the Congress party.
Tharoor later told reporters in the national capital that he heard about the award on Tuesday and that he was not going for the ceremony.
"I heard about it yesterday only. I am not going. I am not here," he said in response to a question on Wednesday on his participation in the award ceremony.
Subsequently, in a post on social media platform 'X', the Congress MP said, "In the absence of clarifications about the nature of the award, the organisation presenting it or any other contextual details, the question of my attending the event today or accepting the award does not arise."
He further said that he learned from media reports that he was named as a recipient of the award when he went to Kerala to vote in the local body polls on Tuesday.
He said he had clarified then that he was neither aware of, nor had accepted, such an award.
"Despite that, today in Delhi, some media outlets continue to ask the same question. Therefore, I am issuing this statement to clarify the matter unequivocally," Tharoor added.
Following Tharoor's statement, Aji Krishnan, the secretary of the Highrange Rural Development Society (HRDS) India which is presenting the award, told a TV channel that the Congress MP was informed about the matter well in advance.
He said that representatives of HRDS India and the chairman of the award jury had met Tharoor at his residence to invite him and the MP had asked for a list of the other recipients of the award.
"We gave him the list. He has not yet informed us that he will not come for the event. Perhaps he is scared as the Congress has made it an issue," Krishnan claimed.
Kerala Law Minister P Rajeev said it was Tharoor's decision whether to accept the award or not.
Tharoor was chosen as one of the recipients of the inaugural Veer Savarkar International Impact Award 2025, instituted by HRDS India, on Wednesday in New Delhi.
On Tuesday, he had said that he heard about the award through the media and that he was not aware who was giving it.
"I am not aware of anything related to the award. Let me find out what it is," he had said.
