Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar has said that there is no curtailment of any democratic value system in India and it is blossoming and flourishing as never before as he stressed that it was incumbent upon Indian students based in the UK to counter false narratives about the country.
Dhankhar, who arrived here on Friday, joined an estimated 100 Heads of State and government from around the world invited to the historic Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla at Westminster Abbey on Saturday.
Before his departure for New Delhi, Dhankhar interacted with UK-based Indian students at an event organised by the Indian High Commission here on Saturday evening.
At the gathering of students enrolled at prestigious UK universities, Dhankhar said India was proud of their achievements and talent and asked them to play the role of goodwill ambassadors of the country.
He went on to highlight the many strides made by the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and stressed its strong democratic credentials.
“India takes its position on global affairs on its own understanding, for its own welfare and world peace. India is emerging as a superpower,” said Dhankhar.
“There can be no more freedom of expression in any part of the world than in India,” he said. “There is no curtailment of any democratic value system in our country. It is blossoming, it is flourishing as never before.” Reiterating his call to the wider diaspora population he interacted with on Friday evening, the vice-president said it was the responsibility of Indian students based in the UK to counter false narratives about the country.
“If you don’t approve of it, you must antidote it. A false narrative about such a vibrant democracy is antithetical to our national interest if we don’t react. And, I have no doubt, the most powerful reaction always comes from rational minds,” he said.
He said India becoming the most populous country in the world is a great advantage as it has learnt the art of leveraging the demographic component by registering economic progress.
“The share of India’s working age population to total population will reach the highest level by 2030. It will be 68.9 per cent. No other country can make such a claim… transparency and accountability are the mantras behind this. Our power corridors, governance corridors have been fully sanitised of power brokers,” he said.
“From a global perspective, our DNA is so strong that there is no challenge to our intellect,” Dhankhar said, adding “wherever we go, we perform amazingly well.” “For the first time, our education policy allows young minds to fully blossom without constraints. Young people in Bharat are now not job seekers. They are now job creators,” Dhankhar said.
All policies in India are people-centric. They have to affect the lives of ordinary people in the country and that has been the only mantra that is “our guiding principle”.
The technological revolution has transformed our society beyond imagination. This is primarily because of our youth, he added.
Dhankhar said India was being dragged for decades because there was no ease of governance.
The vice-president concluded his two-day visit to the UK with a message of goodwill to the royal couple.
“Happy to be present at the coronation ceremony of King Charles III and Queen Camilla today. On behalf of the people of India, I extend my warmest congratulations to the newly crowned King and Queen of the UK,” the Vice-President’s office said in a Twitter statement.
“May India-UK ties grow stronger in the years ahead,” it said.
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