EAM Jaishankar recalls Kutchi folk artist; speaks about transformation of Narmada district in his Washington speech

Washington: Speaking at the embassy of India in the US capital, External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar mentioned in his speech, his experiences related to the Kutch and Narmada districts of Gujarat. EAM was addressing the Indian diaspora in Washington, D.C.

Jaishankar explained how a Kutchi folk artist at Gujarat Bhavan in the national capital Delhi performed a song in which he also put a bit about PM Modi’s America visit.

Jaishankar said, ‘I am a Member of Parliament from Gujarat. I’m sure it happens in the U.S. as well, where members of Congress or Members of Parliament from a particular state gather together. So, we had gathered at the Gujarat Bhavan in Delhi, where a few ministers as well as the Prime Minister were good enough to attend. All the MPs (elected from Gujarat) were there.’

“Then, one of the ministers said, ‘You know, there are these folk singers, these people these people who trying something they make up the word, its a song about what’s happening in the world.’ You know what was really amazing to me? There was this folk singer, I think he was from Kutch. These are self-taught or self-educated individuals who improvise as they go along. He started singing, and he told PM Modi that he wanted to sing a song about him. When he sang the song, you know, my Gujarati had to struggle a bit to keep up with it. He sang actually there was a bit about prime minister’s America visit,” the EAM added.

Jaishankar further added, “Today, actually, is a visit to the United States, and a Biden-Modi meeting has reached the boondocks of India, where balladeers are making songs about it. That shows how much we are connected to this world but also today how much in people’s minds this relationship matters.”

Talking about the aspiring tribal district Narmada, the EAM went on to say, “Now, as a member of Parliament, you know we have districts. Even if you’re not a directly elected member, there are constituencies or districts for which you have development responsibilities. The district to which I have attached myself is actually what we call an aspirational district, Narmada. Everybody from Gujarat will certainly know, for others, I want to say, you know it’s the district with the tallest statue in the world, Sardar Patel’s Statue of Unity. It’s a district where, in many ways, it has a large tribal population. People have struggled with health, education, with basic amenities. Today, it is among the fastest transforming districts of India.”

“I mention this to you because what we try to do in the G20 is to get countries of the global South together. The countries facing problems, 125 of them, and we asked them, saying, ‘Tell us what your problems are because you folks are not going to be on the table when the G20 meets. Somebody has to put those problems before the G20, and we believe, as I said, it’s the right thing. It is a decent thing that your problems become the focus of the G20. The G20 is successful not because, you know, we found the right formulas on a matter as complicated as the conflict in Ukraine. The G20 is successful because we were able to shine the spotlight on the fact today that resources for education, health, development, for infrastructure, are falling behind. We speak about saving the planet, but we’re not able to resource that. We talk about technology, but do we actually have a vision of a digital public infrastructure, which is so central today for corruption-free good governance? And it is because we were able to get the G20 on the right issues. That, to my mind, is what, you know, India’s leadership, what India’s contribution today is,” the EAM further said. DeshGujarat