ICCR director general Dinesh K Patnaik told the Express that the basic premise was to showcase governance at three levels - central, state and local. To celebrate the 75 years of India’s Independence, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has planned a programme “Next Generation Democracy” to emphasise the country’s rich democratic tradition.
For this, ICCR, which functions under the Ministry of External Affairs, has invited under-35 leaders from 75 democracies to visit India. Each group will consist of about seven to eight countries with two to five delegates each, it stated. The first group comprising 19 delegates from eight countries, including Bhutan, Sweden, Jamaica, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Poland, Uzbekistan and Malaysia, concluded their visit on Monday.
ICCR director general Dinesh K Patnaik told the Express that the basic premise was to showcase governance at three levels – central, state and local. “Besides, we want to highlight the progress India has made over the years in space technology, IT and grassroots organisations.”
Rhoda Moy Crawford, 33, an elected MP Manchester Central (Jamaica), said the visit helped her bust some negative perceptions about the country.
Kinga Magdalena Gajewska, 31, an MP from Poland said, “We are a country of 38 million, yet we have around 400 MPs, while India – at 1.38 billion people – has 543 MPs. I can’t even begin to imagine how many people each of them represents and the amount of responsibility it brings in.”
ICCR President Vinay Sahasrabuddhe told the Express, that owing to the Omicron situation, the next delegation will be organised next month. The aim is to complete 75 visits by August 2022, or latest by January 2023, following which it will be over to the young leaders to take it forward, he added.
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