The Week India - July 29, 2018

JULY 29, 2018 • THE WEEK 15

POWER POINT

SACHIDANANDA MURTHY

[email protected]

I

n the next few months, ambassadors of India

accredited to 193 countries will be on a hunt

for two individuals in the countries of their

posting—one individual will be a local artist

while the other will be a prominent person of

Indian origin (PIO). Th e external aff airs ministry,

under Sushma Swaraj, has been coming up with

unique ideas to celebrate India and Indianness.

Th e 193 PIOs will represent the globe at the

Kumbh Mela in Allahabad (likely to be renamed

Prayag before next February).

Th e Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, so far held from

January 7 to 9 to coincide with the anniversary

of the return of the greatest non-resident Indian,

Mahatma Gandhi, has been rescheduled so that

the delegates

can delight

in the special

religious and

nationalistic

displays. Th e

conclave will

now be held

from January 21

to 23 in the holy

city of Varanasi,

which is also the

prime minister’s

constituency.

Th e delegates will then travel to Allahabad

during the Kumbh Mela season, which starts

on Makar Sankranti (January 15) and ends on

Mahashivratri (March 4). Th e last Kumbh Mela

in Allahabad six years ago attracted around 12

crore devotees and tourists. Next, the diaspora

representatives will travel to Delhi to witness

the Republic Day parade—sort of a fi nale to

Narendra Modi’s fi ve-year term—where United

States President Donald Trump has been invited

to be the chief guest. Ambassadors and high

commissioners accredited to small and remote

countries in the Pacifi c, Africa and Latin America

are looking for suitable representatives. Th e

government is confi dent that there would be a

representative from each member country of the

United Nations.

In early July, Swaraj, who has infused new

dynamism into overseas Indian aff airs, told the

conference of Indian heads of mission in New

Delhi that the projection of India’s achievements

in the past four years should be stepped up,

and the diaspora has to be strongly involved.

She had another identifi cation task for the

diplomatic heads. Since the Modi government

plans to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of

Mahatma Gandhi in a very special way, the heads

of mission were given a long checklist of events

to organise from October 2018 onwards. One of

them involves

looking for the

best artist from

each country

to paint a

portrait of the

father of the

nation. Th ese

painters would

be paid a good

remuneration,

and the

collection of 193

paintings would

be brought out as a coff ee-table book.

Th e chanceries of India around the world have

been supplied with a number of coff ee-table

books and CDs, highlighting the achievements of

the Modi government and of the external aff airs

ministry. A few ambassadorial eyebrows went

up as these activities come on top of other events

like the International Yoga Day, which require

immaculate planning, as every year a new setting

has to be found in each country for the massive

yoga display. Both Modi and Swaraj think it is

global celebration time and the bigger the bash,

the better, especially when elections are round

the corner!

It’s show time!

ILLUSTRATION BHASKARAN