Lahore: Patron-in-chief of Pakistan Hindu Council Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani has invited all peace loving citizens to celebrate the Holi festival, which is also known as the spring festival, the festival of colors or the festival of love.
Talking to the media outside Parliament House on Wednesday, Dr. Ramesh, while demanding public holiday on the Holi festival, emphasized the need to promote interfaith harmony across the country, adding that the ancient Hindu religious festival was no longer limited to Hindu community but also being celebrated widely, in many parts of South Asia, as well as other parts of the world. He was of the view that the celebration of Holi was reminder of the symbolic great victory of good over evil.”The purpose behind the initiative by Pakistan Hindu Council to invite other Pakistani people for the joint celebration of Holi festival is to promote the common basis of ‘Love of God and Love of the Neighbour, Love of the Good and Love of the Neighbour’ among all religions,” he further said.
Answering a question related to the Civil Awards being announced every year on the Pakistan Day (March 23), he regretted that many patriot Hindu citizens with outstanding positive contributions for Pakistan were in dire need of Government attention and in this regard, he named some of them as: Jogandra Nath Mandal, first Law and Labour Minister, S.P. Singha, first speaker of Punjab Assembly, Sir Ganga Ram, renowned Humanitarian, Hari Chand Rai, father of Modern Karachi, Justice Rana Bhagwan Das, and Comerade Sobho Gian Chandani.
On the occasion, Dr. Ramesh Vankwani also urged to raise voice for not including even a single chapter to acknowledge the positive contributions of non-Muslim Pakistanis in educational text books.
The Holi festival is being celebrated on Thursday (March 5, 2015).