By Parveen Chopra, IANS
New York : The trend of NRIs returning home to start business ventures, to join companies or teach at universities has proven the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi right, his widow and chief of India’s ruling Congress party Sonia Gandhi said here.
“Rajiv Gandhi had foreseen that the so-called brain drain from India was actually creating a brain bank,” the chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) explained to a gathering of NRIs here Monday. Rajiv was also right about promoting information technology, she added.
Gandhi spoke without any oratorical flourishes but lucidly and forcefully at the function organised in her honour by the Indian National Overseas Congress (INOC) in association with many community organisations at the Hotel Marriott Marquis.
Also present on the dais were External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi, Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma and senior statesman Karan Singh.
Her son Rahul Gandhi, the new general secretary of the Congress party who is accompanying his mother on the US trip, was not present on the occasion.
In an address punctuated with applause from the audience of about 2,000 people, Gandhi covered a lot of ground — coalition politics at home, the UPA government’s commitment to helping those who have been left untouched by economic prosperity, and India’s way of tackling terrorism.
While commiserating with the people who had suffered in the 9/11 attacks and admiring New Yorkers for rebuilding their lives after the tragedy, she pointed out that India, too, had been confronted by the scourge of terrorism for a long time — former prime minister Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were both killed by terrorists.
But, she pointed out, “What is remarkable is the resilience of our people, and how nothing has been allowed to damage the bonds of social harmony.”
Gandhi emphasised that in India’s fight against terrorism, care had to be taken so “no one community feels under siege”. She added, “Our guiding philosophy is to fight fundamentalism and communalism of every shade.”
The UPA chairperson praised India’s economic growth, one of the highest in the world, but admitted that many regions in the country have lagged behind.
To improve the quality of life of the most disadvantaged, she said, the government was making investments in key areas like education, nutrition and health. Agriculture was also being revitalised by huge allocation by the central government and the ongoing rural employment scheme would cover all districts.
“We also have a new legislation to set up social security for workers in the unorganised sector, which in our country accounts for over 90 percent of the workforce.”
Referring to NRIs, Sonia said their remittances and investments are “a major source of our economy”. But she told them to be discriminating in supporting NGOs. “Not all NGOs have noble intentions and the activities of some are not transparent.”
Aid should not damage the secular heart of our nation, she added.
Gandhi mentioned that India now allows dual citizenship for NRIs if the local laws of their adopted country permit it.
She also talked about the remedial measures being taken to tackle the rising incidence of deserted wives among NRIs, particularly in Britain.
Gandhi, who is here to address the UN General Assembly on the occasion of International Non Violence Day Tuesday, said the multilateral body adopting Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary as the global peace day was “collective homage by world community to one of the greatest men of all time”.