Theme Keynote by Dr. L M Singhvi, MP

January 9, 2003, New Delhi

Forge Individual Talent into Collective will urges Yashwant Sinha

At the first plenary session - India and the Diaspora - Forging a Constructive Relationship, the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha expressed the need for India to overcome the challenge of forging world-class individual talent into a collective endeavour which will benefit the Indian Diaspora, the host countries, India and most important of all world peace, stability and progress.

In his keynote address, the Minister pointed out that traditionally there have been several difficulties that have stood in the way of a constructive relationship between the Diaspora and our country. For one, the Indian Diaspora is characterised by high-level of diversity in culture, language, religion and region, and hence has been unable to develop a pan-Indian identity. He added, "The license- quota-permit Raj fostered a mutual distrust between the Diaspora and the Indian government and an over-cautious approach and a "fear of backlash" prevented Government of India from taking up the concerns of the Indian community abroad."

Today the Minister said that the support for a close partnership with the Diaspora transcends political barriers. The Indian story has become stronger since then, reiterated Mr Sinha. "Over the last decade, the growth rate has averaged six per cent and is likely to go up to eight per cent in the next five years. Foreign reserves stand at over US$70 billion. We are a software powerhouse, exporter of food grains, a nuclear power and have made advances in nuclear science, bio-tech and defence production. On the world stage, we played host to 80 foreign dignitaries including the premiers of Russia and China," said Mr Sinha.

Drawing a parallel he said that even the Indian Diaspora is stronger than ever before. It can boast of political prowess, economic prosperity and intellectual achievements of world calibre. But more importantly, pointed out Mr Sinha, "India has completely shed whatever ambivalence it might have had towards its Diaspora, as a result, members of the Diaspora are now investing in industries, bringing ideas and modern management practices from the rest of the world to India. The moan of brain drain has given way to the acclaim of brain gain."

To build closer ties and work together, the Minister recognized that there was a need to upgrade airports, provide better connectivity and customs and immigration procedures and other services within the country. In the external arena, he voiced the need of "often quiet diplomacy, backdoor intervention and collective efforts to bring better results than a sledge-hammer approach."

A special address was then delivered by H.E. Dato' S. Samy Vellu, Minister of Works, Malaysia. He said that India and Malaysia could forge partnerships in the areas of infrastructure, technology transfer, pharma research, healthcare and higher education. Prof Lord Bhiku Parekh, House of Lords, UK also addressed this plenary session seeking a recognition of the long-term legitimate interest of the Diaspora and a conscious move to involve the youth of this segment.

Mewa Ramgobin, MP, South Africa and Sir Shridath Ramphal, Former Secretary General, Commonwealth Secretariat, UK were other speakers at the session. The recommendation of celebration of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas was made by the High Level Committee on the Indian Diaspora chaired by Dr. LM Singhvi to recognise the contribution of the Indian Diaspora in the political, economic, social, academic and cultural fields. The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is jointly organised by the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). .-keralamonitor.com

FIRST PLENARY SESSION WITH MINISTER OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
January 9, 2003, New Delhi

Theme Keynote by Dr. L M Singhvi, MP

Chairman, High Level Committee on Indian Diaspora
Chairman, Pravasi Bharatiya Divas-2003
President, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts
Member, Executive Board, UNESCO
Chairman, Jnana Pith Pravara Parishad
Formerly India's High Commissioner in U.K.

A new day of new and promising beginnings dawned today in the history of India's relationship with its Diaspora. Of that history I have been a student and a witness for all of our fifty five years after we attained independence and that is why I believe that Pravasi Bharatiya Divas marks the birth of a new idea, a far reaching new perception, a vibrant new conception and a pioneering inception. It is the first step in a journey of thousand miles, and the first step is always the most crucial, the most significant, the most memorable and the most momentous. Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is meant to acknowledge the Diaspora from the Pacific and the Indian Ocean to the Atalantic and the Carribean, from Africa and West Asia to West Europe and the Americas, who have in their own different ways done India proud. Today, by common consent they are a force to reckon with and constitute what I termed long ago as the National Reserve and Resource of India. For them India remains an emotive core and will I hope become a destination for a meaningful and practical partnership in common endeavours. There is much we can do together I hope and pray that Providence will bless this propitious beginning for a fascinating journey of fruitful exploration and endeavour, and that in the years to come we may look upon it as the starting point of a consecrated and purposeful new pilgrimage of the kindred togetherness of the Global Indian family. This, and here and now, is future history in making, for Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is not merely about the Past and its problems or the Present and its Challenges. This Diaspora Utsav is about our resolve to contribute to our Common Future.

The High Level Committee on the Indian Diaspora which I had the honour to chair proposed and the Government of India agreed in the choice of 9th January as the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, which has the everlasting fragrance of Mahatma Gandhi's vision and his life and work, for it was on that day that he returned to India from South Africa to lead the Indian nation in its freedom struggle and the renaissance of the spirit and genius of India and the best of our heritage. Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is an attempt to take on board the unfinished agenda of our freedom struggle and of our post -Independence contemporary concerns for the Indian Diaspora and for the Indian diaspora's heartfelt need to relate to India and to relate to its own different segments in order to maintain the hub and spoke relationship with India and to create a new network of a web which embraces within its orbit all the concentric and multicentric convergences. Towards that end we have to follow the poetic
invocation calling upon us to climb every mountain, to ford every stream, and to follow every rainbow till we find our dreams and make them come true.

Pravasi Bharatiya Divas has been preceded by a whole lot of home work by the High Level Committee on Indian Diaspora as well as by the Organizing Committee for this extraordinary and unprecedented congregation of unity in diversity. But the proof of the pudding is after all in the eating, and I hope that the Organising Committee which represents all the concerned Departments of the Government and the partnership of the Government with FICCI has produced a pudding which will prove itself in the eating.

The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is an affectionate gift of Mother India to its overseas children, a gift of the Prime Minister's commitment to the idea of building bridges between India and the Indian diaspora. This is a theme on which I dared to dream long ago and the seedling and the sapling of which I have nursed for more than four decades. I have had the opportunity to interact with each one of the distinguished Prime Ministers of India on issues relating to the Diaspora. I recall how Shri Rajiv Gandhi warmed up to the idea and was keen to inscribe it on his agenda for the twenty first century. Shri P.V. Narasimha Rao clearly saw the rationale of the idea. But the time for the fruition and the fulfillment of the idea arrived when Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee came to the prime ministerial office. It is to him as the karta of the large and sprawling global Indian family that we owe the vision of cultural statesmanship which has brought the diaspora into focus for India and for the diaspora itself. It is to him that we turned for strength and inspiration in the work of the High Level Committee on the Indian diaspora. He made it possible for us to disprove the cynical adage of Dr. Johnson who had said that a Committee consists of individuals who can do nothing individually and decide collectively that nothing can be done. Happily, the idea of a new approach to the Diaspora has proved to be resilient and we can now say with confidence that our Committee was not a device to defer and push the diaspora issues into the oblivion.

Mr. Prime Minister, in the ultimate analysis, a report is only as good as its implementation. Pravasi Bharatiya Divas and Pravasi Bharat Samman constitute only the first instalment of the implementation of the recommendations of our Committee which has made in all some 160 recommendations based on a hardheaded and a warmhearted study of vast and massive data including a large number of country profiles and equally on the perceptions and representations of the worldwide Indian diaspora and the inputs provided by the entire apparatus of the Government of India and the State Governments. Our recommendations cover every part of the world, every walk of human endeavour and every department of the government and the civil society.

Mr. Prime Minister, at this juncture, may I suggest that we need to modify President Kennedy's exhortation to say to all the segments of the Indian diaspora: Tell us what we can do for you and ask yourselves what you can do for India and for each other globally. That is what the High Level Committee did. Our recommendations offer an integrated blueprint of a practical and purposeful partnership and solidarity between India and the Indian diaspora.

The Indian diaspora now looks up to you, Mr. Prime Minister, to offer them what they expect and to tell them what is expected of them. A segment of the Indian Diaspora expects to hear your government's decision on the unequivocal recommendation we have made to you with regard to Dual Citizenship. All other segments of the Diaspora long to be inspired and guided by you in a hundred different ways. And they would like your Diaspora initiative to be sustained over the years if we are to achieve enduring results. I would suggest that the Government should formulate a comprehensive Diaspora Policy, cultivate an informed interest in the Diaspora and its core concerns including its human rights and human dignity, and create an effective coordinating mechanism for diaspora affairs. India and other countries of the world should strive in the international fera to achieve international consensus on a more rational approach to migrations and migrants and an approach to fight racism and prejudice. And I think the Diaspora, on its part, should engage itself in the task of assisting India to transform itself into a power house of development and moral and cultural strength. I hold the view that the strength of the diaspora is the strength of India and the strength of India will be the greatest source of strength and safety for the global Indian family.

Mr. Prime Minister, you spoke in your famous New Year Musings of connectivity of all kinds in a forward - looking manner for the transformation of India. The Indian diaspora and the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is a shining example of the great potential of the human connectivity of the global Indian family. That connectivity makes for yet another global highway which would be akin to the Pradhan Mantri Yojana for better connectivity through roads and highways within India.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The first Pravasi Bharatiya Divas has many firsts to its credit. It is for the first time that such an ingathering of the global Indian family from some 60 countries is taking place. It is for the first time that a great Listening Post has been created institutionally to hear the voices of the Indian diaspora carefully and systematically. It is for the first time that we have an opportunity to welcome a sizeable delegation of our French and Dutch speaking Indian diaspora. And it is for the first time we have the most eminent statesmen, scientists, academics, entrepreneurs, business leaders and the youth of the Diaspora at a purpose-oriented Conference where we would discuss themes such as investments; tax problems; airport reform; Cultural Centres and programmes; tourism; ecology; technology transfer; education, health and philanthropy sectors; building of Pravasi Bharatiya Bhavan by the diaspora somewhat like an India International Centre; media; rights and obligations of the diaspora; migration policies, diaspora pensioners etc.

We shall also have a glimpse of the performing arts of the resident Indians and of the Indian diaspora and most important of all, we shall have opportunities for fellowship and for discovering beauty and grace in the many-splendoured diversities of the Indian diaspora.

The Indian diaspora is a rainbow, and if I may say so, my head soars with a fond aspiration and my heart leaps with boundless joy when I behold the rainbow of India and Indians over the globe. I also behold and hope for the globalisation of India in the right perspective and Indianisation of the globe in the right proportion, with our Indian diaspora as the catalyst for cross-fertilisation. This congregation and this auspicious beginning will I hope build a global diaspora network of bridges or what was called in Indian antiquity "Setu-bandhanam." Setubandhanam as a metaphor sums up the vision which ought to be at the heart of this festival of India and of Indian diaspora, and to highlight that message I composed a few lines in Sanskrit some ten years ago:

Setubandhanam Sarvaranjanam
Setubandhanam Margasadhanam
Setubandhanam Snehkarnam
Sethubandhanam Vikasmoolam
Setubandhanam Utkarshkaranam
Setubandhanam Vihit-tarnam
Setubandhanam Sada Bhavyam
Setubandhanam Sada Divyam
Sada Satyam Sanatanam

Freely and roughly translated (with my own gloss), it would mean: "Bridges may be built (i) to secure welfare and happiness of all (Sarva-ranjanam); to blaze new trails and facilitate passages (Marg-Sadhanam); bridges may be built for the cause of affection among individuals and groups and for goodwill among nations and peoples (Snehkaranam); and as the foundation of development (vikasmulam), for progress and prosperity (utkarsh-karam), for salvaging that which matters, and to reduce distances with a view to increase togetherness and speed arrival and advancement (vihit-taaranam). Let this Setu be ever magnificent (Sada Bhavyam), let is always be graced by divine purpose (Sada Divyam). Let it always represent the eternal truths enshrined in the enduring and universal vision of India (Sada Satyam Sanatanam)." -keralamonitor.com