20 August:

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presented the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadhbhavana Award to noted Islamic scholar Maulana Wahidudddin Khan.

While presenting the award, the prime minister said the award is given every year to a personality who had contributed to increasing social unity.

"India needs the services of people who work for strengthening social unity", he added.

Congratulating Maulana Wahidudddin Khan who won the award for 2009, the prime minister said, the Islamic scholar had spent his whole life spreading the message of unity and peace and his books had attempted to find a peaceful solution to challenges of terrorism.

Khan led a peace march with Acharya Sushil Muni and Swami Chidanand after the 1992 incidents in Ayodhya and this step had helped normalise the situation.

Manmohan Singh said that Khan had carried India's message of love, peace and togetherness to different parts of the world .

 

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