UK Ratha-yatra

07-01-2004, 04:00 AM

Dear Maharajas and Prabhus

Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

You may have heard of the recent extraordinary successful Ratha-yatra in
London where 3 carts added to a day of pure devotional bliss.

We managed to get a very special message from the Rt. Hon. Tony Blair, Prime
Minister who specifically referred to the "Krishna Consciousness Movement".
We also had a message from Ken Livingstone the Mayor of London.

At the festival we were honoured with no less than 7 political leaders from
all three major parties, with some of them offering coconuts to the deities
and sweeping the road.

All in all the National Communications Department (NCD) secured no less than
49 seperate newspaper articles with color photos. Publicity came in local,
regional, national and international media, with many carrying a front page
photo caption. One leading Asian newspaper in the UK gave us a full two-page
spread and in another a Member of Parliament, who attended the festival, was
so moved by the experience that he spent his whole newspaper column on
Ratha-yatra.

Some headlines read:

"A joyous occasion"
"Hare Krishna Festival Transforms London"
"The Good Lord in London"
"Krishna's followers in capital"
" A capital performance from Hare Krishna followers"
"At peace: Krishna revellers on parade"
"Ancient festival lights up the streets of London"
"Chariots' place in history"
"Reflecting diversity Hare Krishna revellers under Nelson's eye"
"East meets West at London's grand Rath Yatra"
"Colour carnival has serious intent"
"London Rathayatra is a positive expression of belief - Tony Blair" (front
page)

The Guardian and The Times, two of London's major national newspapers,
carried the story with a photo, with exposure to the value of £3720 in The
Guardian.

In addition we had two of London's major TV stations and three Asian
television crews.

Live and recorded radio broadcasts were also given.

Your servant.

Hari-dhama dasa on behalf of the National Communications Department: Radha
Mohan dasa, Varsana devi dasi and Bimal Krishna dasa.