The Honourable Speaker of the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament in India), Shri Om Birla, attended a roundtable with the Canada India Foundation to learn about and discuss ties between Canada and India. Accompanying the Speaker was Shri Harivansh, the Honourable Deputy Chair of the Rajya Sabha (upper house of Parliament in India). The event was organized in conjunction with the Consulate General of India in Toronto at the Westin hotel in Toronto Saturday 11 January. But more than the pomp surrounding the occasion, it was a meeting of minds where patriotic emotions for the motherland overflowed.
While acknowledging their debt to Canada, their karmabhoomi, their adopted homeland, these entrepreneurs couldn’t hold themselves back as they described their affection and adoration for India, their Janmabhoomi, their motherland.
And the guardians of the Indian Parliament beamed back at the group in pride.
The Consulate General of India in Toronto, led by Apoorva Srivastava, India’s new, young, and dynamic Consul General, in collaboration with the Canada India Foundation had organised the roundtable discussion with the visiting dignitaries.
The participants included members of the Canada India Foundation and other prominent Indo-Canadian entrepreneurs. Satish Thakkar, the National Convenor, and Pankaj Dave, the Co-Convener of the Foundation moderated the flow of the discussion and offered introductory and closing remarks respectively.
The roundtable discussion touched upon several developmental challenges that India is facing. The gathering of the entrepreneurs was keen to be involved with the India story in a constructive manner because nearly all of them were intimately involved in philanthropic, charitable and social enterprise projects at the micro level in India.
During his introductory remarks, Satish Thakkar emphasized the constructive role that the Canada India Foundation had performed in enhancing bilateral ties between the two countries. “The Foundation adopts a 360-degree approach to Canada – India relations that encompasses all aspects of human endeavour – political, economic, cultural, social.”
He added, “Our members devote special emphasis on social reengineering through philanthropic interventions. It is not a coincidence that Canada – India relations have reached a new high in the last decade – the Canada India Foundation, which was formed in 2007, has played a significant part in this transformation.”
Hon. Om Birla listened with rapt attention to the entrepreneurs, who utilised this opportunity of a tête-à-tête with two of India’s most respected political leaders, to voice their appreciation of the positive measures that the Narendra Modi government is implementing in shaping the future of India by making tough choices. These measures may cause of discomfort in the present but will assuredly usher a better tomorrow for the 1.3 billion Indian population.
Hon. Birla, in his summation, pointed out that India’s developmental story is unique because of its inherent democratic traditions. “No where in the developing world do you see the rich democratic traditions wedded to the developmental story as in India,” he said. Hon. Harivansh said that the present Parliament was one of the most productive in the history of Indian Parliament because it had passed a number of legislations even sitting in session past midnight on several occasions.
Hon. Om Birla is a grassroots worker who has devoted his entire political life to his ideology and has risen from the rank and file to reach one of the most important offices in Indian democratic system – of the Lok Sabha’s Speaker. Similarly, Hon. Harivansh is a veteran journalist who edited Prabhat Khabar prior to his Rajya Sabha appointment, and then being appointed as the Deputy Chairman.
The dignitaries were in Canada to participate in a Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth in Ottawa. In the evening, the Consulate also organised a community reception attended by over 500 guests.
