Civil society, pluralism source of India’s strength: Power
INDIA is an absolutely ‘critical actor' globally and a major source of its strength has been the potency and vibrancy of its civil society and pluralism, visiting USAID administrator Samantha Power said on Wednesday (27).
The senior American official, who was on a visit to India from July 25 to 27, said that it has been India's multiethnic and multiparty democracy that allowed it to withstand the challenges the country has faced and come out ahead stronger and more resilient.
Power made the comments in an address at an event in Delhi IIT and as well as during a media interaction.
‘It has been its support for free expression over decades that has allowed injustices to come to light. It has been its tolerance for diversity and dissent that has allowed reforms to take hold, and institutions to progress,' Power said in her address.
At a media interaction later, she described India as an absolutely ‘critical actor' not only in the Indo-Pacific but all over the world. ‘There's no question that a major source of India's strength has been the potency and vibrancy of its civil society, the pluralism, the debates that have occurred here over so many decades...the rollicking media debates,' she added.
Sri Lanka's economic crisis and pressing global challenges such as food security and climate change figured prominently in Power's talks with her Indian interlocutors, including India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister PK Mishra and Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra.
She met with Parameswaran Iyer, CEO of the government think tank NITI Aayog, and discussed bilateral collaboration across sectors to drive and sustain development outcomes around the world. She also joined Indian agricultural experts and private sector leaders to learn how the US and India can apply climate-smart and sustainable solutions to address the global food security crisis.