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Address by Minister of State Dr Shashi
Tharoor at the inauguration of Fifth Ministerial Conference of the
Community of Democracies
12/07/2009
Address by Minister
of State Dr Shashi Tharoor at the inauguration of
Fifth Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies at
Lisbon, Portugal on 12 July 2009
H.E. Mr Jaime Gama, President of the Assembly of the Republic of
Portugal,
H.E Mr Luis Amado, Foreign Minister of Portugal,
Honourable Ministers in the podium and in the hall,
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, especially our “matriarch” Secretary
Madeline Albright,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
I would like to begin by congratulating our hosts, His Excellency the
President of the Parliament and His Excellency the Foreign Minister and
their staffs for the excellent arrangements made to host this major
Ministerial meeting and for the warm hospitality of the Government of
Portugal.
2. It is a particular pleasure to address this Inaugural Ceremony.
India’s is a culture which values modesty in conduct and speech, but one
boast we have not been shy of making is that we are proud of being the
world’s largest democracy. It is India's conviction, from its experience
in maintaining this distinction, that democracy is the only form of
governance that gives each citizen of a country a strong sense that her
destiny and that of her nation is determined only with full respect for
her own wishes.
3. India is also proud of being able to demonstrate, in a world riven by
ethnic conflict and notions of clashing civilizations, that democracy is
not only compatible with diversity, but preserves and protects it. No
other country in the world, after all, embraces the extraordinary
mixture of ethnic groups, the profusion of mutually incomprehensible
languages, the varieties of topography and climate, the diversity of
religions and cultural practices, and the range of levels of economic
development that India does. Yet Indian democracy, rooted in the
constitutional rule of law and free elections, has managed the processes
of political change and economic transformation necessary to develop our
country.
4. India is united not by a common ethnicity, language, or religion, but
by the experience of a common history within a shared geographical
space, reified in a liberal constitution and the repeated exercise of
democratic self-governance in a pluralist polity. India’s founding
fathers wrote a constitution for this dream; we in India have given
passports to their ideals. Instead of what is sometimes known as the
“narcissism of minor differences,” in India we celebrate the commonality
of major differences. To stand the famous phrase on its head, India is a
land of belonging rather than of blood.
5. So the idea of India is of one land embracing many. It is the idea
that a nation may endure differences of caste, creed, colour, culture,
conviction, cuisine, costume, and custom, and still rally around a
democratic consensus. That consensus is about the simple principle that
in a democracy you do not really need to agree all the time– except on
the ground rules of how you will disagree. Indians are comfortable with
the idea of multiple identities and multiple loyalties, all coming
together in allegiance to a larger idea of India.
6. In my country, the largest electoral exercise in the history of
humanity, the 15th General Election for our Parliament, was completed on
May 16, 2009. It was a mammoth election, with over 460 million voters,
out of 734 million eligible to do so, casting their votes in 830,000
polling booths over a period of four weeks. Though as a victor myself, I
can celebrate the results, I can say with great pride and satisfaction
that the exercise itself, and not just the outcome, demonstrated the
vital strength of democracy. As President Gama said today, democracy is
also about how to lose, and that is something Indians have repeatedly
learned, as multiple changes of governments have confirmed. Democracy is
a process and not just an event; it is the product of the exchange of
hopes and promises, commitments and compromises which underpins the
sacred compact between governments and the governed that we are all here
to uphold.
Mr. Chairman
7. As we approach the 10th Anniversary of the Community of Democracies,
I must compliment member countries and the civil society organizations
present for their abiding interest and commitment to the principles of
our Community. Since the first meeting in Warsaw in 2000, our Community
has grown in strength. The principles enshrined in the Warsaw
declaration, the Seoul Plan of action, the Santiago commitment and the
Bamako consensus are a reaffirmation of our democratic ideals and
values.
Mr. Chairman
8. Several challenges have emerged or been reinforced in the last decade
that have a bearing on democracy. I would like briefly to touch upon
three of them.
9. The first challenge, also evoked by the foreign ministers of Mali and
Brazil, is the international financial crisis and the danger that poses
to the fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goals, the MDGs.
10. Two reports were recently issued at the United Nations. The first
was an Outcome Document of the high level General Assembly Summit on the
Global Financial Crisis. The second was a report launched at the margins
of the UN- ECOSOC high level segment meeting in Geneva earlier this
month. Both have sharply underscored the serious negative impact of the
financial crisis, also vividly described today by the foreign minister
of the Republic of Korea. The second report indelibly and starkly brings
out the clear signs of regression in regard to the MDGs as a result of
the global financial crisis. In 2009, it states that an estimated 90
million more people will be living in extreme poverty than was
anticipated before the crisis. In fact, before the crisis the number of
people living on less than $ 1.25 a day was showing a downward trend.
11. In India we are conscious of the huge challenge of poverty
alleviation and of the impact of the financial crisis. We have weathered
the initial phase of the crisis ourselves due to our strong
institutions. Our banks are well regulated, capitalized, and resourced.
We have taken steps to maintain an adequate liquidity position while
ensuring that delivery of credit remains on track. India's public
spending has been enhanced significantly. These measures have helped
India to maintain an estimated 7% rate of growth despite the current
crisis.
12. But we are conscious that many other democracies could be vulnerable
to the societal pressures arising from the economic setbacks caused by
the global financial crisis. This is a time for solidarity amongst
democracies, developed and developing.
13. Which leads us to our second challenge. Democratic governance is
imperative not only at the national level but equally at the
international level. We are a community of nations which believes and
practices democratic governance at home. We are unified in these values.
However, in the larger international arena, the governance relationship
between developed and developing countries remains skewed. The global
governance architecture has elements of non-inclusiveness and less than
fully participatory institutions. Such a democracy deficit is visible in
almost every multilateral institution, including in the United Nations.
This is why India and other countries present here have called for
urgent reform of the United Nations, including in the Security Council.
Reform of the international financial architecture is also an immediate
imperative. We hope that our common ideals of democratic inclusiveness
and a level playing field will guide members of this community in
supporting reform of the international governance system.
14. Third:
Terrorism is a serious threat to democracy. I need not dwell on this
subject at this forum, since all of us know that terrorism and those who
practice terror have scant respect for democratic values, norms,
institutions or governance. In fact, the very fabric of democracy is a
target for the merchants of terror. Pluralism, diversity, human rights
and freedoms are anathema to the agents of hatred and fanaticism. As a
Community of Democracies we must stand boldly against terrorism and its
perpetrators. Terrorism is, after all, an assault on the common bonds of
humanity and civility that tie us all together. Our commitment to
democracy should make us stronger in the face of terror and we should
not relent till this scourge is extinguished effectively. A united and
universal response is needed, which is why we should cooperate to adopt
international agreements against terror, notably the Comprehensive
Convention on International Terrorism which has been pending for the
last eight years. On the broader issue of promoting understanding across
Cultures, I am pleased to see President Jorge Sampiao here on behalf of
the ‘Alliance of Civilizations’, a cause my government strongly
supports.
Mr. Chairman
15. I have spoken of a few major challenges that face democracies today.
What can and should be done to face them would be part of the debate in
the three round table thematic sessions today. I look forward to hearing
your ideas and approaches in addressing these and other challenges.
16. As we embark on our deliberations today, I would like to thank the
current Chair, Portugal, for its leadership in the Community of
Democracies, and to welcome Lithuania as the incoming Chair. Let me also
take this opportunity to reaffirm India's commitment to work with our
partners in the Community of Democracies. Let us cherish and value what
we have in common as democracies, but let us also respect what makes us
different from each other, and appreciate that it is in the nature of
democracies to be responsive to the very different preoccupations of
their own internal constituencies. The last century has, despite many
horrors along the way, given us, in the famous phrase, a “world safe for
democracy”. Let us also work, in the 21st century, to establish a world
safe for diversity.
Thank you.
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