George Bush's homage to Gandhi "trivial", say descendants >>>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060301/pl_afp/indiausbushgandhi_060301091540

George Bush's homage to Gandhi "trivial", say descendants

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"Merely going to Raj Ghat doesn't make him (Bush) a votary of peace. His faith in war and weapon supremacy is to be criticised," Tushar A. Gandhi, a great-grandson of the Indian freedom campaigner, told AFP by phone from the western city of Mumbai.

Tushar Gandhi said that though he opposed Bush's "war policies", he was not against the US president honouring Mahatma Gandhi, who advocated truth and non-violence in leading a fight against British colonial rule.

"I think it is a good thing that Bush acknowledges that he must honour the man who stood for non-violence.

"But it is a trivial exercise unless he changes his outlook," said Tushar Gandhi, who runs the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation based in Mumbai.

Tushar's father Arun Gandhi, who is based in the US, called Bush a "warmonger".

"The only way that Bush can honor Gandhi is by ... showing greater compassion for the poor people of the world and not by laying a wreath at his memorial," he said in a statement released by the Washington-based Institute for Public Policy.