Excellencies;
Distinguished guests;
Friends from the media;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
It is my privilege to welcome you all to the India-Africa Editors’ Forum at the Third India-Africa Summit. The unprecedented level of participation in this Summit from our friends and partners in Africa is a testament to the deep historical bonds that India shares with Africa.
I have come here straight after inaugurating the India-Africa Friendship Park on Shanti Path or the Peace Avenue in Delhi. The saplings denoting eternal friendship and mutual cooperation between our two peoples and societies that we planted today will need to be nurtured in an environment of mutual understanding. This will need to be fostered, in no small measure, by all of you – friends from the press and media fraternity!
This, Editors’ Forum is among the first formal engagement of my participation in the 3rd India-Africa Summit.
This is a conscious reflection of the importance that we impart to this Forum and participation of our friends from the media fraternity in this event.
Many of you have travelled a long way to participate in this historic Summit. Looking at the extent of participation, besides welcoming you in English, I will also need to say Karibu (in Swahili); Marhaba (in Arabic); bienvenue (in French) and bem-vindo (in Portuguese)!
This lingual diversity of Africa immediately finds a resonance in India. We are proud to recognize 22 languages officially as part of our Constitution; there are countless other local and regional dialects.
I say this because this highlights the biggest challenge that our media fraternity has always faced in bringing us closer to each other.
I also say this to underscore that our media fraternity has bravely shouldered the burden of making our two societies aware of the commonalities that bind us together, within ourselves and with each other.
Be it the common fight against colonialism and apartheid in days of yore, or the common challenges of economic development – poverty, illiteracy and hunger – our media has ensured that we understand each other across languages and across cultures.
Excellencies, distinguished friends, This year marks the centenary of the return of Mahatma Gandhi – the father of our Nation – from Africa.
Gandhiji, many say, was probably the greatest journalist of his time. He was able to move the masses in national and social cause not only by the strength of his message, but also by the way he conveyed it through the weeklies he ran and edited.
His first paper was started in South Africa, where in 1904, he had taken over the editorship of the ‘Indian Opinion’ and published it in English, Tamil and Gujarati; sometimes, in the interest of economy, running the press himself.
Gandhiji looked upon journalism as a means to serve the people. He said in his autobiography and I quote: “The sole aim of journalism should be service. The newspaper is a great power, but just as an unchained torrent of water submerges whole countryside and devastates crops, even so an uncontrolled pen serves but to destroy.
If the control is from without, it proves more poisonous than want of control. It can be profitable only when exercised from within.” He went on to question that “if this line of reasoning is correct, how many journals of the world would stand the test? But who would stop those that are useless? and who should be the judge? The useful and the useless must, like good and evil, go on together, and man must make his choice”.
Bapu’s words carry a deep and abiding resonance. As media practitioners, you carry an onerous responsibility.
Even as we recognise the diversity and plurality of our societies and set about further strengthening the long-term partnership between Africa and India, the journalist’s role becomes more complex than plain reporting and raising awareness.
Even as one reports the facts, it is one’s duty to investigate and analyze underlying agendas. Even as we report from conflict and crisis situations, we have the responsibility to avoid looking at each other through a prism of stereotypes perpetuated by biased reports.
I believe that the exercise of strengthening relationships between African and Indian news media must be placed on the bedrock of a message of ‘grass-roots empowerment’. Engagement between the Indian media and their counter-parts from the African continent needs to move ‘bottom up’.
We need new initiatives in the Information, Communication, Media and Entertainment (ICME) sectors. These initiatives should be able to unleash the voices of two of the youngest regions in the world – India and Africa – and harness the power of digital, social and new media platforms to bring about a Renaissance of New Ideas, Thoughts and Vision.
A case in point is the Pan Africa e-Network that can be used to host an ‘Africa-India Media Portal’ and an ‘Experts Data Base’ of Journalists, Reporters and Editors, feeding into demands for information and perspective wherever required.
I am happy to note that the three Panel Discussions of this Editors’ Forum, we will focus on themes like:
‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Africa’s Vision 2063’, ‘India-Africa Development Partnership’ and ‘Reforms needed for Global Governance’.
These are all topical issues for which 2015 has turned out to be a seminal year.
These panel discussions also reflect important planks of India’s continuing engagement with Africa.
In the last 15 years, India’s trade with Africa has gone up 20 times and today stands at more than 70 billion US dollars. India also has a total investment of 30 to 35 billion US dollars in Africa.
We have managed to extend concessional credit to the tune of 7.4 billion US dollars. Most of this credit stands approved and at least half has already been disbursed.
Through credit lines, India has partnered Africa in creating137 projects in 41 countries.
Let me emphasize that our basic approach to our relations in Africa has been one of maximizing mutual benefit. We have sought to complement our needs with each other’s strengths.
Capacity building through programmes such as ITEC in which more than 25000 scholarships have been provided since the 2nd India Africa-Forum Summit, remains a key element of that.
Our partnership also encompasses a broad range of human endeavours from agriculture to healthcare, security, renewable energy and emerging areas like the blue economy. These areas of cooperation reflect the strength of our fraternal relations and our commitment to go boldly together into the future.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
2015 has been a historic year for pushing forward South-South cooperation. We celebrated the 60th Anniversary of Asian-African Conference and the 10th Anniversary of the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership at Bandung. We worked together in the finalization of the post-2015 Development Agenda.
The developing countries are also articulating similar views and concerns as the UN celebrates its 70th Anniversary this year.
A major issue in this context is that of UN Security Council reforms. The Security Council continues to be representative of a world order of 1945.
It is inconceivable that the Security Council today does not have any permanent representation from Africa which is the largest continent (in terms of number of countries). It is also incomprehensible that India which represents almost one-sixth of world’s population and has all credentials to be a permanent member of the Security Council, is still out of it. We all need to work together to remove this anomaly and media has an important role in this.
Later this year, in December, we will witness the culmination of the global discourse in two other critical areas- climate change and world trade – in the form of COP 21 on Climate Change in Paris and the 10th WTO Ministerial in Kenya.
In both these meetings also India, Africa and other developing countries will have to work hand-in-hand to ensure that our development agenda is not affected.
We believe that this 3rd Edition of the India-Africa Forum Summit is an epoch making engagement in this journey of strengthening South-South Cooperation in order to promote world peace and prosperity, while accounting for Africa’s own aspirations for growth of pan-African institutions and development programmes.
Over the next four days, at the highest political levels, we will endeavour not just to give a new thrust to our age-old partnership but also to develop a new paradigm of cooperation focusing on key areas such as infrastructure, agriculture, energy, innovation and health.
Forums like this distinguished gathering of the India-Africa Editors’ Forum comprising of senior journalists, reporters and editors from India and Africa enable us not only to dispassionately reflect on the past, but also to define the road ahead, in tune with the times we live in.
I wish the India-Africa Editors’ Forum all success. Thank You!
