New Delhi: Former Prime minister of Sri Lanka, Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mr Suresh Prabhu (Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha and India’s Sherpa to the G20) attended the recently held session of the Binding Bharat initiative.
Honourable Suresh Prabhu welcomed the distinguished chief guest from Sri Lanka, honourable ex Prime Minister, Mr Ranil Wickremsinghe & made the following opening remarks “Bringing people together, irrespective of their nationalities, irrespective of their faith, irrespective of their beliefs , irrespective of their backgrounds and trying to work together to build a common prosperous better future for all of us, this itself is an laudable idea and only, as I can see, can be born in the minds of youth like you, because they see future very clearly and they learn lessons from the past and they realize building future together is the best thing they can do. Sri Lanka’s human development record, if you go by what UNDP calculates, is exemplary and they had difficulties, they had to fight wars, they had different challenges in the past but despite that their social development was a commendable exercise.
On tourism, he added, “it’s time we develop joint tourism ideas. We can offer a very interesting package for the tourists to see 2 countries in one visit”
On energy, he remarked, “because of Sri Lanka’s geographical location, Sri Lanka’s wind velocity makes it a very attractive destination for generating the cleanest form of energy in the world-wind electricity . Plant load factor for a wind project in Sri Lanka would be double of India’s. We can make 40% PLF for a wind project in Sri Lanka, while in India we normally have it less than 20%. Just imagine, with same investment of capex you can have double the power generation, so you can imagine the advantage.
Speaking at Binding Bharat’s Indo-Sri Lanka Bilateral Setu on “Youth For Sovereignty, Human Rights & Democracy”https://t.co/XtJYvMEUvO
— Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) August 16, 2020
On Binding Bharat, Sir remarked & ended with, “So I think Binding Bharat is finding solution to tomorrow’s world. The situation can be challenging today but there isn’t just a silver lining but a also a golden lining. Once again congratulations to young girls & boys who will be the leaders of tomorrow. When I am invited after few years again, I will keep saying that thanks to the great vision of these young minds because we will be a much better world than this 1st time when I came & addressed this forum. So congratulations to you & let me once again thank great leader Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe. We are honoured by your presence.”
Honorable ex PM remarked: “1st I must thank Binding Bharat, you all are looking at the future in which you will have a globalized system without a globalized leadership where regions are going to be much more important. Mr Suresh has done great job to bolster relations between two countries. We are all one family. I would like to mention Honourable Pranab Mukherjee’s contribution. He is in hospital today. I would also like to thank PM Modi for how we worked together. While we recreate our economic order we will keep intact our basic values of democracy, human rights, cultural ties. India-Sri Lanka’s economic assets are complementary, specially given our strategic location. As far as our cultures are concerned, there are no issues at all. We are also seeing a lot of cooperation in the field of education, law, medicine, virtually every field. Our common culture dates back 2500 yrs.”
Convenor of the Binding Bharat, Mrs Kanuriya Jaju added; “As we join together, in the post Corona physical distancing conference, a new century, a new millennium knocks at our doors. I welcome the dignitaries & others to today’s session & also our special guests from Sri Lanka. 70 years of our independence have gone by & yet I have pride as well as regret. Pride because we have successfully retained our sovereignty & made our democracy stronger & regret because the curse of poverty, unemployment, discrimination & terrorism aren’t eradicating. We are witnessing increasing challenges to sovereignty & democracy, so we feel it’s important to reach out beyond borders & realize the idea of Vasudevkutumbkam. And at such times we talk of Binding hearts , we talk of Binding Bharat.”
Other dignitaries from Sri Lanka &India(as mentioned above) also graced the session with their insightful talks.
Co founder, Harmanjot Singh Gill , who is a Chandigarh based lawyer delivered vote of thanks to both the chief guests.
Co fonder Prasannjeet Singh Rathore, a President of India awardee, moderated the session.
Binding Bharat is a think tank founded by Kanupriya Jaju to connect youth from around the globe with youth from India. Kanupriya is the convenor of the Binding Bharat. She is also a political analyst, international relations & diplomacy expert, who holds a Master’s in the domain as well. She is a human rights & youth activist also. The two co-founders who will be working with the initiative are Harmanjot Singh Gill, who is a Chandigarh based lawyer &Prasannjeet Singh Rathore, who is a President awardee in social services.
The initiative is a collective youth network founded to identify & meet the challenges that nation states face. Binding Bharat is based on a single premise that youth has the potential & willingness to bring about drastic changes in society & therefore they must be given more representation & space.
In future the initiative aims to organise more such conferences with different countries, in association with academicians & senior people from all walks of life, from India & the concerned country.
