Council
for International Peoples Friendship, Sudanese Indian Friendship Association
and AlZaiem AlAzhari University jointly organized a symposium at the University
hall in Khartoum (North), Bahri on Monday 9th June’14. The title of
the symposium was ‘Democracy in India’ and the speaker was none other than the
Ambassador of India to Sudan His Excellency Sanjay Kumar Verma.
The
Ambassador started with the definition of Democracy as given in the preamble of
the Indian Constitution which is Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic India.
Many misunderstand Socialist as Communist but here it means equality of
resources and wealth. Secular in India means all inclusive. The Ambassador
endorsed the point made by the announcer Prof. Abdelgadir Hamid AlFadil to
explain India’s secularism by saying that India is Muslim, Christian, Hindu,
Sikh, Jain, and Parsi. Democracy in India also means Justice (not to be
mistaken for judiciary). It is social, economic and political justice which
means equality of status, opportunities; liberty of thoughts, expression,
belief, faith and worship. The Ambassador gave an example that in India people
can stand up in a corner and speak of non governance without being invalidated.
Mr.Verma
spoke about the structure of the Parliament, the functioning of the Election
Commission. It was interesting to learn that 64% of the voting population (840
million) is below the age of 30. This makes India the youngest country in the
world. While talking about the process of elections the Ambassador mentioned
that the first election in Sudan was conducted under the guidance of Sukumar
Sen an Election Commissioner from India. The recent elections held in India
were the first time in the world with 100% usage of Electronic Voting Machines.
These machines replaced trillion plus pages of paper which was environment
friendly and the results were announced faster. While responding to a
journalist from a local newspaper in the symposium, Ambassador offered to share
India’s experience from its Constitution and Election Commission and assist
Sudan in this matter with what suits best for the country.
The
Ambassador also spoke about bilateral relations stating that Sudan will always
remain in focus in terms of institution building, capacity building in human
resources and in industry. He added that Investment is the best way to prosper
for a country like Sudan which brings in technology and management. In the
recent CII Africa Conclave the robust delegation from Sudan discussed $ 86 billion
worth of projects with India.
No comments:
Post a Comment