Remarks by EAM, Dr. S. Jaishankar at the unveiling of Bapu’s bust in Tokyo

Namaskar! Minasan Konnichiwa.

Ambassador Sibi George,

Mayor of Edogawa-ward, Saito Takeshi-san,

Parliamentary Vice Minister KOMURA Masahiro-sensei, Member of House of Representatives Onishi Hideo-sensei, Dear friends,

it's a great pleasure to be here today with all of you.

It's a little warm, just like India, but it's really very, very good to see all of you. We have gathered here today because Edogawa Ward and Mayor Saito have decided that they will build a relationship with India by having this wonderful statue of the father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi, at this venue and at this park, which they will be naming after him.

In India, we think of Gandhi Ji, Mahatma Gandhi, as the father of our nation, understandably. But for the world, he is actually a global icon. And we have to ask ourselves today, why is it important to have this statue here? And I can think of three reasons. One, that the achievements of Mahatma Gandhi have far outlived his own times, with the passage of time they have got more and more importance. Two, the message that Mahatma Gandhi gave through his life and through his work is timeless. What he taught us was important then, it is important even now. And three, I was told this is a place, somebody called it Little India, I hope it becomes bigger, but this is a place where the Indian community in Tokyo lives and gathers in large numbers. And I cannot think of a more appropriate occasion and a better way of strengthening bonds between India and Japan than by this event.

Now when I spoke about achievements gathering greater significance with time, please think about it. We all know that without Mahatma Gandhi, our independence struggle would perhaps have taken much longer, gone a different direction, who knows. But the independence of India actually decolonized the entire world, it was the starting point of a very momentous event. That when India became free, other parts of Asia became free, Africa became free, Latin America became free. So what Gandhiji started, today when we say India is the fifth largest economy in the world, where the world is changing, it is heading towards multipolarity, that when the G7 becomes the G20. In a way, all this was started as a result of what Gandhiji did in history.

Now I spoke about the messages, the timeless messages of Gandhiji. I would say today, at a time when we are seeing so much conflict in the world, so much tension, so much polarization, so much bloodshed, it's very important that Gandhiji's message was that solutions do not come from a battlefield, that no era should be an era of war. And that message applies today as much as it did 80 years ago.

A second message is something which we all think today in terms of sustainability, of climate friendliness, of green growth, green policies. Gandhiji was the original prophet of sustainable growth. He was the greatest advocate of how to live in harmony with nature. So the message of Gandhiji, that it is not just something for governments to do, but for everybody to do in their personal life, that is something which again we pass on. And of course, Gandhiji was an advocate of inclusiveness and that is what we are seeing in India and across the world today.

So I once again want to thank the Mayor, I want to thank the Minister, I want to thank all our Japanese friends. But most of all I want to say to the community, for me this is a very rushed visit, it's always good to come here, you know this is not like a second home, it is a second home. So it's great to be back, I wish I could have spent a little more time, but I expect to have more opportunities in the coming times.

So once again it's very, very good to see all of you, please contribute because I think today India-Japan relations are not just built by Ministers, Ambassadors or Mayors, they are built by all of you. So I want to tell you greetings from India, greetings from India, greetings from a country which has seen a government elected for the third successive term after 60 years. Greetings from a very confident people who are looking forward to a great future ahead in the times to come.

Once again, very, very good to see all of you, Namaskar.