R Day 2022 speech

Good evening! Bonjour! Namaste to everyone!

           A warm welcome (literally!) to a warm evening! An equally warm thank you for making it to our event on a working day, in the middle of the week; I know many of you are coming straight from your offices. Je sais que pour beaucoup d’entrevous, c’est votre première visite à notre nouveau Haut Commissariat. Je suis ravie que ce soit à l’occasion de notre toute première celebration de la fête de la République ici, à Ebène. On behalf of 1,390 million Indians, my colleagues and I,sincerely thank each one of you, for your valued gesture of friendship in celebrating India’s Republic Day with us. A special, heartfelt thanks to His Excellency, Hon’ble Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth for gracing this event and making it doubly special by inaugurating the iconic Ashoka Stambha in our High Commission on this auspicious day.

            Ladies & Gentlemen, I see that my words are coming between you and the delicious Samousas and Dosas served on your table! As you know, we Indians love our food. So, I request you to continue eating as I speak!

2.          I feel equally fortunate that we are in a country like Mauritius where we are still able to have such get-togethers at a time when the Covid pandemic has made it impossible to do so in many other parts of the world. I recall that exactly, one year ago, on this same day, Mauritius rolled out its vaccination campaign with 100,000 ‘Made in India’ vaccines. Barely a year later, Mauritius has commendably managed to become one of the few proud countries in the world to have vaccinated three-quarters of its population! It is indeed a great achievement and I would like to express our gratitude to all the countries and organisations that supplied vaccines to Mauritius, as well as our collective appreciation to His Excellency Prime Minister PravindJugnauth and the government of Mauritius, for successfully handling these challenging times and for enabling us to go about our daily lives.

3.       This is also evident from our little video that showed how eventful 2021 was despite Covid and how our uniquely close India-Mauritius partnership grew even closer, through good times and bad times.As a Mauritian friend recently said: Hitopadesh mein kaha gayaa hai‘Sachchey Mitr ko parakhney ke liye,vipatti kaal hee kasautee hai…’which means“Calamities are the touchstone on which true friendship is tested.”When India went through a brutal wave of Covid 19, Mauritius generously gifted 200 precious Oxygen Concentrators that saved many Indian lives; and when India lost a great friend in Sir Anerood Jugnauth, the Parliament of India and all Indians mourned the loss of the visionary leader by flying the Indian Flag half-mast all over the world and by befittingly honoring hismemory with the Padma Vibhushan award. I take this opportunity to thank Lady Sarojini Jugnauth for graciously travelling to India and accepting the award personally.

4.      Despite Covid, our bilateral political engagement also continued, with the visit of our External Affairs Minister Dr. Jaishankar in February which saw the signing of CECPA, India’s very first Free Trade Agreement with Africa; a 100 Million US dollar Line of Credit for defence procurement; the announcement of new projects under the 500 million dollar Line of Credit, as well as the inauguration of this new High Commission building!

5.      Our development partnership continued robustly too - we inaugurated the Rose HillQuatreBornes segment of our flagship Metro Express project and celebrated its crossing the 5 million ridership mark (in a couple of weeks, I am told it will cross the 6 million mark!); we handed over a Dornier Aircraft on lease; completed the Refit of the Mauritian Coast Guard Ship Barracuda; supplied Gunpowder and Explosives to the Special Mobile Force; and provided 13 Trailer Mounted Water pumps to the Mauritius Fire and Rescue Services as well as 16 Human Incinerators to Municipal and District councils. I am delighted that more than 200 Mauritian officials attended Indian training programs and several Mauritian students availed of Indian scholarships to study in India, despite the challenges of Covid.

6.     On the economic front, as Your Excellency would recall, we had the honour of partnering through the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE Ltd.), your visionary initiative of launching the pan-African stock exchange -AFRINEX. We also launched the Indian Business Council, a new platform for those interested in doing business with India, to tap into the opportunities opened up by CECPA.

7.      At the multilateral level, I am glad to share that our Prime Ministers inaugurated a new climate change initiative for building climate-resilient infrastructure in Small Island Developing States at the COP 26 called IRIS - Infrastructure for Resilient Island States - along with the Prime Ministers of the UK, Australia, Fiji and Jamaica.And India participated in its first meetings of the Indian Ocean Commission as an Observer.

8.     India also launched a 2-yearcelebration of its 75th anniversary of independence called AzadikaAmritMahotsavon 12thMarch, the day Mahatma Gandhi launched his Salt Satyagraha, which is also the day chosen by Mauritius as its Independence Day and Republic Day. To celebrate these foundational ties, we organized about 30 events here in Mauritius in compliance with Covid restrictions, including an Art Conclave with live Painting by Mauritian artists. Covid-situation permitting, we hope to organize larger events this year, along with an Iconic Week that showcases the best of Indian dance, music and culture. And hopefully, some Bollywood fun!

9.        As India celebrates this 75thmilestone, we are proud that from being one of the poorest countries in the world when we became independent, we have become the world’s fifth largest economy today; and we are even prouder that we have done so while also becoming the world’s biggest democracy. This is however, not only an occasion to celebrate what we have achieved in 75years, but also an opportune moment to solemnly recommit ourselves to our foundational values that define the very essence of India; what India stands for – peace, shared prosperity, and universal brotherhood. That is why we began our Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav in Mauritius with the installation of 3 an Ashoka Stambha at our Cultural Centre in Phoenix last August because this Ashoka Stambha or Dharma Stambha, epitomizes these very values.

10.        As many of you may know, about 250 years Before Christ, Emperor Ashoka ruled almost the whole Indian sub-continent from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Nepal, Bangladesh and most of India. He was a ruthless and violent King but after seeing 100,000 people killed on the battlefieldin the Kalinga war, he became the world’s biggest Ambassador of peace and advocate of Buddhism. He sent Buddhist emissaries and erected Ashoka Pillars propagating non-violence and brotherhood all across his empire and today, we find these Pillars even in places like Sri Lanka, Thailand and China, which explains the wide spread of Buddhism from India across the world.

11.       Which is why when India became independent 75 years ago, our founding fathers chose the Lion capital on the Ashoka Stambha at Sarnath in India, as our National Emblem and the Ashoka Chakra symbolizing the Wheel of Dharma, as the blue wheel at the centre of our National Flag. We chose this to remind ourselves of our incredible transformative power as humans - to emerge courageous and powerful like the lion by conquering one’s own human failings; to confidently advance like the Wheel of Dharma with righteousness amidst the relentless cycles of life; in pursuit of the ultimate end – peace, universal love and goodwill for all. The Ashoka Pillar reminds us that if a King as ruthless as Ashoka could transform himself into an icon of peace, we can all ‘be the change that we want to see in the world’, as Mahatma Gandhi urgedus to be. It became our National Emblem on the day India became a Republic on 26 January 1950, our very first Republic Day. And so,to mark our very first Republic Day celebration in our new premises,we have, at our High Commission, therefore, also chosen to install the Ashoka Pillar here today.

12.      This iconic pillar here, will ensure that we will always be guided in our work by these timeless values. An eternal reminder that even as India claims its rightful place in the world, it will always remain a force for peace, harmony and shared wellbeing in the world.That even as India marches towards modernity and we work in this state-of-the-art new building, we will remain anchored in our millenniaold ancient values of ‘Sarve Janah Sukhino Bhavantu’ which means:“May all beings be happy and at peace; May no one suffer”.

13.    I wish to add a special word of thanks to the Laxmanbhai & Company (Mauritius) Ltd., who have presented this magnificent pillar to the High Commission of India.

14.     Interestingly, just as we windup our India@75 celebrations on 15 August next year, we will also be commemorating India-Mauritius@75, since 2023 also marks 75 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our two brotherly countries. Just how special India-Mauritius relations are, is evident from the fact that Mauritius was one of the first ten countries where independent India sent its very first batch of High Commissioners and Ambassadors. I was amazed to know that 300,000 Mauritians - nearly half of Mauritius then - came to receive India’s first Commissioner DHARM YASH DEV when he arrived here in August 1948! I am grateful to the Hon’ble Prime Minister for the support extended by the Government of Mauritius in making this a memorable and multi-faceted celebration of our strong relationship, and we hope that we will make it a year to remember! We also hope to see all of you, our dear friends, more often this year, to enjoy these special moments!!

15.    Nous veut/salannee la,/c’est nous fini/avec Covid.Sa mem Creole mo kone. Mo arête la meme!

16.      I thank you and wish you and your dear ones, a healthy, happy and fulfilling 2022!

Merci beaucoup.

Vive Maurice! Jai Hind!