Sitharaman: India, US building foundation for strong, peaceful global community

India and the US are together building a foundation for a strong, peaceful and harmonious global community, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said.

“When we celebrate diversity, celebrate inclusiveness, it is also the point that we share a lot of positive thoughts when we are doing this,” Sitharaman said.

“Today when we celebrate togetherness, it is that spirit which governs India and US relationship: a positive thinking relationship of two democracies, which have their own share of challenges and their own share of internal problems, but we don’t allow them to overwhelm us”, she said.

The minister was addressing Indian Americans at an event organised by the Indian Embassy in Washington to celebrate the country’s diversity on Saturday (April 15).

“We are together and building strong foundations for a strong, peaceful and harmonious global community. That’s where, I think, the contribution of the Indian diaspora, here people of Indian origin, to the US is very important,” she said.

“You integrated yourself or do you recall with fondness the place of your origin, but youre part of the US today and building a very dynamic and robust economy,” Sitharaman said.

“This is exactly what is even in India. Differences are there between different regions, different people and different languages,” she said.

When people talk about digital achievements of India, the achievements are purely because the platforms have languages, “which are at least 15, as recognised by the Constitution of India, there are more such languages,” she said.

The minister also highlighted that there are dialects, which can be spoken, but cannot be written as they don’t have a script.

“But the Indian Constitution recognises 15 of them. Most of our platforms are available now in regional languages. And that’s why when you pay your little bills to your milkman or you wish to vendor, you do it in their own languages. These are the instruments of success,” Sitharaman said.

So, every diversity-related issue has been turned to an advantage in building a modern India, she added.

“I wish this relationship between the US and India grows from strength to strength,” said the finance minister at the event that among others was also attended US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Kurt Campbell, the Indo Pacific Coordinator of US National Security Council, General Atomics’ Chief Executive Vivel Lall, and White House official Dr Rahul Gupta.