By Parveen Chopra, IANS
New York : Sonia Gandhi, chairperson of India’s ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), took part in a few events here commemorating, for the first time, Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary as the International Day of Non-Violence.
On Tuesday, she addressed an informal plenary session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) where she underlined that the Mahatma’s methods of non-violent action were as relevant in today’s fast-paced and globally interlinked world as they were in his times.
Srgjan Kerim, president of the 62nd UNGA, Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, and N. Dlamini Zuma, minister of foreign affairs of South Africa, also addressed the meeting.
Thereafter, Pranab Mukherjee, Indian external affairs minister, chaired a round table discussion on the relevance of the Gandhian method of non-violence in the current international context. Anand Sharma, minister of state for external affairs, accompanied him. The participants included UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha Rose Migiro and several heads of delegations to the UNGA.
The panellists included eminent thinkers and Gandhians such as Amartya Sen, Reverend Jesse Jackson Senior and Ela Gandhi. Senior journalist Dileep Padgaonkar was the moderator.
Sonia Gandhi joined the panellists and other dignitaries at lunch following the round table discussion.
In the evening, Gandhi inaugurated a photographic exhibition titled “Gandhi and Global Non-violent Awakening” at the UN premises.
Separately, a documentary film “Mahatma – The Great Soul” was screened at the Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium at the UN premises.