TIMES NEWS NETWORK

[WEDNESDAY, MAY 07, 2003 12:16:50 AM ]

NEW DELHI: It is not a religion. There is no hierarchy. And therefore, Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, does not have congregations, teachers, a holy book, temples or other places of worship. There are no leaders and no fund raising.

Now its practitioners are in India not only to promote the practice but also to highlight the way the movement is suppressed by the [Jiang Regime] in China.

''There are around 1,000 people practising the Falun Gong in India, most of them are in Bangalore,'' says Emmi, an interior designer from Australia, who is here along with Lord Francis Thurlow and Gurpreet Jauhal from the UK, to spread Falun Gong's message.

Thurlow is a member of the House of Lords and has over 40 years experience in the foreign and Commonwealth offices. He now travels the world over to promote the movement. Gurpreet was one of the first to practise Falun Gong in England.

Jauhal says, ''Indians will be able to adapt to it easily as it is a way of living. It won't be a foreign concept here because it is similar to yoga. Falun Gong is not a religion or an organisation.''

According to Thurlow, anyone can be a Falun Gong member. ''The earliest followers of the Falun Gong were Christians. Now we have Buddhists, Sikhs. We feel the movement will be popular in India as it has a culture of tolerance and it won't be suppressed the way it is being suppressed in China.''

''We are not against a particular form of government or against the whole Chinese administration. What we want to do is highlight the way China is ruthlessly cracking down on the movement,'' claims Thurlow.

The practice, they claimed, initially had the support of the Chinese government but later fell out of favour with the government.

''China does not like to have anything within its borders that it cannot control. If there is a church, it will be under the government. Falun Gong scared the government with its sheer numbers. The movement had 100 million members while the Communist party had just 50 million,'' says Emmi.

''The SARS issue will help focus the world's attention on the way the Chinese government lies,'' point out Jauhal. ''Our newspaper, Falun Dafa Today, reported about the virus as far back as November. But the government made sure that the news did not spread.'' He feels that India's admiration for China and its economic might is misplaced as the Chinese government is merely inserting statistics to show its development.

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