In his never ending quest to piss off the world, George
Bush's visit to the Gandhi memorial shrine in Rajghat has sparked controversy and created animosity with some
Hindu officials, including Gandhi's great grand-son Tushar Gandhi, who
called it a "National shame".
It was bad enough that he defiled the shrine by his mere presence there, but the controversy centered around the use of sniffer dogs to make sure the shrine was secure.
From the link above:
"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.
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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.
...
"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."
Bush had already come under fire last week in advance of his visit to the shrine by a US-based peace activist group.
"A group of peacemakers has demanded that the US President be kept out from a Mahatma Gandhi memorial, during his visit to India, as "George Bush knows nothing about non-violence".
George W. Bush plans to lay a wreath in honour of Mahatma Gandhi on a memorial at Rajghat, a favourite destination of foreign dignitaries in New Delhi - an action that is being condemned as a "cynical, disrespectful display of symbolism."
Bushco: Where pissing off (and on) the world is almost an art.
Aside: I sort of suspect the priests would have cleansed the shrine anyways.