Govt facilitates NRI Kumbh Mela at Varanasi
Suhasini Haidar
Conference rescheduled to coincide with Kumbh, Republic Day; to be held in Varanasi.
New Delhi: Fifteen years after then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee launched the ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Divas’ (PBD, or Non-resident Indian Day) conference to mark the day Mahatma Gandhi returned to India from South Africa, the government has decided to move the date to facilitate NRI Kumbh Mela visitors, and “maximise their experience” during their visit to India.
The move came in for criticism from opposition members, who said it was motivated by political concerns. “Shifting the Pravasi Bharatiya meet shows the RSS-controlled BJP government is aggressively pushing the Hindutva agenda for 2019 polls,” said CPI member D.Raja.
The 15th edition of the event will be held in January 2019 in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, and close to the site of the 'Ardh Kumbh' in Allahabad. The participants will be taken by bus from Varanasi to Allahabad, after which they will travel by train to Delhi to witness the Republic Day parade.
“I want to appeal to Indians living abroad to attend the conference with full enthusiasm, as dates have been changed at your request, and for which we have two new attractions,” External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said at a press conference, addressing the NRI community.
While the PBD conference has been scheduled for January 7-9 since its inception in 2003, the 15th PBD conference in 2019 will be held on January 21-23rd instead.
According to the MEA’s website, “January 9 was chosen to celebrate this occasion since it was on this day in 1915 that Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest Pravasi, returned to India from South Africa, led India’s freedom struggle and changed the lives of Indians forever.”
Explaining the shift after 14 years, MEA sources said the Ministry had received feedback that the event, which drew about 1,800 delegates from 72 countries in 2017, was increasingly being seen as a “talk-shop, without concrete results”.
Some members of the diaspora had reportedly asked Ms. Swaraj to consider shifting the date closer to the Kumbh Mela, to begin on January 14, 2019. PBD delegates will also have a special passes to the Republic Day Parade, and arrangements for their travel and stay will begin once the registration period ends on November 15, officials said.
The move came in for criticism from opposition members, who said it was motivated by political concerns. “Shifting the Pravasi Bharatiya meet shows the RSS-controlled BJP government is aggressively pushing the Hindutva agenda for 2019 polls,” said CPI member D.Raja.
MEA sources denied any other motive for the shift except to ensure PBD delegates “maximise their experience, and include more into their agenda. “There is no change in tradition,” an official told The Hindu, explaining that the shift was not expected to be permanent. (The Hindu)