Your Excellency, Lord Chancellor, thank you for gracing us with your presence here today;
Excellencies, distinguished Parliamentarians, my Lords, Ladies and gentlemen,
Fellow Indian citizens and friends of India, and equally importantly, friends of the India-UK partnership:
Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 75th day that marks the entry into force of the Constitution of India: in short, Republic Day.
On this day in 1950, India stood as a newly-free modern nation, on the cusp of becoming a Republic. Its people watched with great anticipation as the world’s largest democracy took shape, based upon a detailed set of lofty commitments made to ourselves, to give every single Indian citizen rights, laws and regulations, and indeed the conditions to prosper, and importantly, the power to enforce accountability in Governance.
In a word, a Constitution.
And because ours is a culture based on the written word, the Constitution was drafted with great care and diligence by committed and thoughtful lawyer-leaders, none greater than Dr BR Ambedkar himself.
But here’s the thing: our Constitution and the democracy that it engendered was located in conditions so unpropitious that those of a pessimistic predilection—in simple English, economists and columnists—gave this newly-independent nation little to no chance of survival.
In fairness, objective facts supported pessimism. After all, every single other democracy on the planet at that time had evolved slowly into full democracy, as rights were conceded gradually, sometimes over generations, to all citizens irrespective of race, or gender, only once the nation had reached prosperity.
But here was a nation that had just emerged on its own independent footing, traumatized by a painful vivisection, awash in chaos and poverty. Here were 340 mn people--90% of whom were heartbreakingly poor, 88% were illiterate, and few expected to live beyond 32 years—daring to dream of securing to every one of themselves every one of the rights of every one of the rich world’s citizens, through laws, regulations, independent institutions, checks and balances, and most of all equality and justice for all. And here’s the thing: the intention was to secure these rights for all from the outset of the entry into force of the Constitution, from January 26, 1950 itself.
No other democracy on the planet began like this. That, I think, ladies and gentlemen, is a feat of some proportions. Call it what you will: imagination, audacity, courage, recklessness—but it is a phenomenal achievement.
This is relevant this day, this year, as more people in the world go to the polls to elect leadership in this calendar year in more countries than ever before. For it is an easy bet that some 60% of all those voters in the world casting ballots for democracy will be Indian. And that, ladies and gentlemen, especially here in a country that has, shall I say, unique and unparalleled historical ties with India, is something worth celebrating.
For later this year, in the gentle warmth of the Indian summer, an electorate of nearly 1 bn people will cast votes for our next Government, proving yet again that democracy is alive and well—robustly, colourfully and even noisily well in India. It will be a spectacle worth watching, not just for the pageantry, but also for the substantive health-check that elections provide for any democracy.;
Some of you will ask, is India’s democracy as good as its Constitution wanted it to be? After all, its society is not always stable and peaceful. And you would be correct in dismissing as whataboutery anything that sounded like a comparison with any other country in these fractious times. But let me ask instead: look at what has been done in the past 75 years, and compare India’s rate of transformation of polity, society, economy, indeed governance with any other country in the world and I venture to suggest we don’t come off at all badly in the comparison.
I have said this before, but the transformations underway in the mechanisms of delivering to hundreds of millions of our people modern governance using technology; universalization of basic benefits for all needy Indian citizens without exception; and in the application of science and technology—indeed our pioneering space programme which reached the lunar south pole last year—in increasing the ease of living. These efforts have been profoundly transformative for not just thousands or tens of thousands but for tens of millions of people every year.
And remember, all of this has been achieved through an evolving social and uncompromisingly democratic framework.
All of this is relevant for us today. For Indians, obviously, because well as we have done, the road ahead is long before we reach our objective of being a developed country that offers true equality and prosperity for all our nearly 1.5 bn people. But I dare say, for you too in this green island Kingdom: it is important for you not just from a vague sense of goodwill about some country distant from your shores. After all, in this increasingly-troubled era of geopolitical tension in which we live, the best guarantor of growth and security is partnerships based on both values and interests. And the India-UK partnership is exactly that.
Ours is a partnership built on our sometimes complex historical foundation, but it is fortified by the values of democracy and fairness, and consolidated by the increasing mutuality of our interests. Important as they are, values need to also be built upon through mutual interests.
After all, money can’t buy you love, but then love can’t buy you money either. Something that I think is, or at least should be, the translation of the official Latin motto of the City of London.
And our interests are driven by the enormous contribution of British people of Indian origin—so many right here in this audience—who have contributed greatly to the UK’s economic and cultural prosperity, in business, finance, healthcare, media, sport (let me not be tactless and mention a certain sporting contest underway between us in Hyderabad), science, education, and err…dare I say it, politics?
And dare I say it again, cuisine. While I can’t claim ownership or even Indian ancestry for chicken tikka masala (and thank God for that) clearly when the India-wallahs returned to Blighty, they needed the spice to remind them of India. Or maybe it was a substitute for the sunshine. Whatever: the short point is, curry and a pint remain a staple for lads and lasses after the game, after work, or just because.
Looking ahead, our relationship with the UK is being driven in new directions. We seek a new, futuristic partnership that is respectful of the past, of the journey we have traversed together, but inspired instead by the road ahead. And in that journey we hope we will create a new partnership based on the value we will provide each other in science, technology and innovation, in education, in sustaining and protecting the global rules of the road, indeed, even in investment and joint ventures.
Of course, the forward-looking partnership piece is exemplified as India Inc holds on to its rank as the second largest investor nationality in the UK, having bought up a number of iconic brands including, in a delightful twist, the East India Company which has gone back to selling among other things, tea.
Indeed, if we were to review the past year, it would be clear that both sides have tried hard to make the year a special one. India and the UK worked closely together on substantive issues and the great concerns of our times to deliver one of the best G20 Summits. Prime Minister Sunak visited India for the G20, as did enough of his senior Cabinet colleagues to give my brilliant counterpart in Delhi cricket fever. And on this side, the weekly list of VIP visitors was such as to give our team a rapid increase in grey hair count. Visits apart, we have made significant progress on a Free Trade Agreement; on new partnerships in Defence; and on initiatives to link our capital markets and to create new channels for long-term, patient capital to be deployed profitably behind India’s green transitions especially in infrastructure, vital as this is in our shared quest to build more sustainable growth and a less ecologically-stressed planet.
And so: we look ahead this year with confidence that our partnership with the UK will be built forward robustly on the premise of strong interests, shared values, and strategic convergence. Our ambitious Roadmap for 2030 places us on the path of strengthening our friendship as one of the key pillars of a reformed and repurposed international system based on the rules and laws-based international order. And on these bases, I am confident, we will build better, more equal, and more sustainable societies of the future.
I now conclude with offering our good wishes for the health and happiness of His Majesty the King; our thanks to His Majesty’s Government, to Parliamentarians, and most of all, our very good wishes for the happiness and prosperity of the friendly people of the UK.
Thank you very much.
