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Brief Report on the National
Conference to Achieve Nuclear Weapons and Missile Defence Free Asia October 27 2010 By J. Narayana Rao |
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On 9th October the inaugural session was held and Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat made the inaugural address and Bruce Gagnon greeted the Conference. On 10th the discussions on Abolition of Nuclear Weapons, prevention of An Arms Race in the Outer Space, the concept of Asian Union and other issues were discussed. At the beginning of the discussion a Question and Answer session for 30 minutes was held with Mr. Jayantha Dhanapala, former UN Under Secretary General from Sri Lanka was held through Skype. Admiramal Bhagwat and Bruce have extensively highlighted the danger of the Weaponisation of Space. A note worthy feature was that many girl students and women intellectuals played a great role in the discussions and some of the peace activists from other states who attended the Conference were surprised at the dynamism with which the youth strongly articulated their views. This was noticed by Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat and Bruce Gagnon. At the end a Nagpur Declaration was adopted. On 11th night myself and Bruce left to Bhopal, Agra, Jammu and Srinagar for a lecture tour. On 12 Bruce Addressed a large gathering of Academicians and students at Bhopal in the Bhansal College of Technology and National Institute of Technology. At each of the meetings more than 200 staff and students were present. A retired Colonel Mr. N.P Dixit has taken the responsibility for organising the meetings assisted by Mr. Vivek Dhawan, CEO of Smrit Netcome Private Limited. In the evening Hindustan Times a daily news paper had an exclusive interview with Bruce. In 13-14 October we were at Agra the place of Taj Mahal. After seeing the beauty and grandeur of Taj Mahal we met a group of Doctors of Indian Doctors for Peace & Development affiliated IPPNW and discussed various issues. After Bruce spoke about the danger of weaponistion of space, they have expressed that for the first time they are hearing about the danger from Space and they will be cooperating with the GN in future. We left to Jammu on the evening of 14th. On 15 Oct under the banner of Global Network a well attended public meeting was held at Jammu in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. This was a unique meeting attended by high intellectuals including scientists, retired and serving Govt Officials, academicians, retired Military Officers, Trade Union leaders and others. It was addressed by Bruce, myself and Senior Advocate M.A. Goni former Advocate General of Jammu and Kashmir State. On 16th we visited the house of Adv. Goni and discussed with him for a couple of hours on several international issues and the situation in J&K. We left to Srinagar on 17th and during our stay there till 19th we couldn't address any meetings because of the disturbances there and students are unable to attend the Colleges. However we held a brief of discussion with the Principal of Government Women's College, Srinagar and got an assurance that she will assist us in spreading our movement amongst the students. This college has got more than 7,000 girl students. We visited the Office of the Rising Kashmir a daily English newspaper and discussed with the senior journalists on various issues. At Jammu Mr. Ashwani Pradhan, General Secretary of All India Peace & Solidarity Organisation of J&K State, leader of the Bank Employees and a member of the Global Network did a splendid job in organizing the meeting and also for our stay. At Srinagar we have been taken care by Mr. Abdul Ghani Hafiz and Mr. Abdul Rehamn Tukroo (An Ex. Member of the Legislative Council of J&K.) Both are very progressive individuals. The experience of Bruce has already been put in his Blog .. Some Important Developments. Seeing the enthusiasm of the Youth at Nagpur in the
conference, I am feeling to organize a National Conference of Youth at Nagpur in
October 2011 on Nuclear Issues, PAROS and Global Warming to consolidate. NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
ACHIEVING NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND MISSILE DEFENCE FREE ASIA,9-10,OCTOBER 2010,NAGPUR |
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