(Hindu) Priests purify shrine after Bush visit

ABC News ^ | March 5, 2006

[NYer]

NEW DELHI Mar 5, 2006 (AP)— Hindu priests who look after the memorial of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi conducted a purification ceremony at the shrine after a visit from President Bush. But it wasn't the president who offended them, it was the sniffer-dogs who scoured the area ahead of his visit.

After the dog visit, the memorial was cleansed with water brought from the Ganges river, which Hindus consider holy, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported Sunday.

Bush visited the memorial on Thursday during his three day visit to India. The site, where pacifist icon Gandhi was cremated, is considered sacred and all visitors, including Bush and his wife Laura, removed their shoes before going in.

The dogs, flown in from the U.S., were part of the intense security surrounding the president, but the Hindu priests believe they tainted the site.

Letting dogs into the memorial also drew sharp protest from Hindu politicians and Gandhi's great grandson, Tushar Gandhi, who called the incident a "national shame," the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

[NYer]

A U.S. security personnel inspects near the eternal flame at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial, before the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush at the memorial in New Delhi, India, in this Thursday, March 2, 2006 file photo. Hindu priests who take care of the memorial of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi conducted a purification ceremony at the shrine after a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, reports said Sunday. It wasn't the American leader who offended them, but the sniffer-dogs that scoured the area ahead of his visit. (AP Photo/Ajit Kumar, File)

[highlander_UW]

What do they have against dogs? I thought Hinduism posited that people often reincarnated as alternative creatures...wouldn't dogs be one of those possibilities, or are they outside the reincarnation cycle and are really just dogs?

[Reaganesque]

The dog thing is a cover story. The real reason why purification was necessary was the all the members of the press that accompanied the President during his visit.

[paudio]

Hey, at the time where some people blow up religious shrines, it's never a bad thing to have security dogs sniff around before the US President visit.

[AmericanMade1776]

maybe one of the sniffer dogs took a leak on the shrine, and the holy water washed it off.

[stm]

"the memorial was cleansed with water brought from the Ganges river"

If they were looking to cleanse it, they should have used urine rather than water out of the Ganges, it's purer.

[Echo Talon]

Why doesn't the headline read "Priests purify shrine Over Sniffer-Dogs"? Oh, yea it wouldn't sell as many papers...

[Nathan Zachary]

Imagine what they would have to do if Bill and Hillary Clinton visited the shrine. They'd have to burn it down and build a new one after those two evil voodoo high priests left their evil presence behind.

[CarrotAndStick]

Posted already:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1590269/posts

[Sender]

Anything bad that happens now will be reported as "Bad Thing Happens After Bush Visit".

[NewCenturions]

LOL! (There goes my morning tea!)

[Eagles6]

Wow, imagine the firestorm if we had done something similar after a hindu, muslim or buddhist had visited. Riots from one at the very least.

[NYer]

Poochie Ping!

[YaYa123]

You are the only one who commented on what's really important here:

ABC's misleading headline.


ABC headline writer being cute? No way! This attention grabbing headline is an intentional insult to President Bush.

[Echo Talon]

Yep, MSM media at it again.

[redlenses]

Don't they realize all the crap, dead animals and even human bodies that are in the Ganges? I'd rather take my chances with the dog urine. And I'm no fan of dog urine!

[conservative physics]

lol

I thought they worshiped animals?

If a cow had come and dropped a pile of dung at the memorial... they would probably be praying to it today... why in the world would they care if a dog sniffed around?

[Porterville]

Well, I gues when a Muslim nuclear warhead cleans out that shrine he will be sad that he washed away the protective spirits of GWB.

[Tribune7]

Hey, maybe one of those dogs was Gandhi.

[Doctor Stochastic]

There's a really big cultural bias against dogs in the Middle East and other parts of Asia(sort of like Medieval Europe's bias against cats.) I have heard (second hand) that the use of dogs is also a problem as people don't like dogs in their houses.