CONGRESS SANDESH COMPLETES ITS SEVEN YEAR

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India’s Contribution AcknowledgedVisitPRETORIA: India’s significant contribution to South Africa’sliberation struggle was warmly and publicly acknowledgedat the public function here on 26 June to mark the 50 thanniversary of the ‘Freedom Charter’. The celebration washeld in kliptown in Soweto where this remarkable documentwas adopted and was attended by about ten thousandpersons, including Cabinet Ministers, provincial leaders,veterans, diplomats and media. India was the only foreigncountry invited to participate and was represented by ShriAnand Sharma, MP and official spokesperson of INC, whohad been actively involved in India’s efforts to support theanti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. He was given thesignal honour of addressing the large gathering which wasalso addressed by President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki.In his remarks, Shri Sharma paid tribute to the sacrifices madeby the courageous South African people to win their freedom.He said that Indian people and its Government had felt a natural“sense of solidarity with the just cause of a struggle for humandignity and freedom”. India had been in the forefront of itssupporters, being the first to impose sanctions against theApartheid regime – a remark greeted by wide applause. Manyothers in the international community had also taken up SouthAfrica’s cause. He, thus, felt privileged to be representing allthose who had supported South Africa from outside. The newSouth Africa symbolized the “triumph of human spirit over therepressive apartheid regime which had been rightly describedas a crime against humanity” and India was proud of having hadthe chance to contribute to this triumph.President Mbeki acknowledged the special solidarity betweenIndia and South Africa warmly in his address. He said that ShriSharma represented the “solidarity and support of the peoplesof the world, as exemplified by the Indian people”. He mentionedthat his presence was symbolic of the fact that ‘the Indian andSouth Africa people can and do claim parentage of a most eminentand historic human being, Mahatma Gandhi”. He reaffirmed “theunbreakable ties of solidarity that unite the peoples and liberationmovements of India and South Africa”. He spoke of the shared“commitment to join hands with the poor of the world to achievethe objective of a better life for all, globally”, referring to thesubstantial potential for cooperation between the two countriesbilaterally as well as multilaterally. ❖Sonia Gandhi Inaugurates NewMetro Corridor␣␣NEW DELHI: The United Progressive Alliance chairpersonand Congress President, Smt. Sonia Gandhi on 2 Julyinaugurated the 7-km long Central Secretariat- KashmereGate underground corridor of the Delhi Metro.Smt. Gandhi lauded the role of all Metro workers andofficials in doing a fine job and said that Delhi’s face wouldchange with the expansion of the Metro network. Metrowould help in reducing congestion and ensuring thatpeople reach their places of work on time, Smt. Gandhisaid.Smt. Gandhi also made a fervent plea to the people toensure cleanliness, safety and upkeep of the system sothat it attains real succes and the coming generationsbenefit from it. ❖Ramesh Chennithala is NewKerala PCC ChiefThe Congress President, Smt. Sonia Gandhi on 24 th Junehas approved the name of Shri Ramesh Chennithala, ex-MP, as the new President of Kerala Pradesh CongressCommittee in place of Shri T. Balakrishna Pillai withimmediate effect, according to a press release signed byAICC general secretary, Shri Janardan Dwivedi, MP. ❖18Congress SandeshJuly, 2005
Strides in Look East PolicyReport- Rejaul Karim LashkarThe end of the Cold War has necessitated a profound shift in India’sforeign policy orientation. During the heydays of the Soviet Union, Indiacould bank, reliably, on the strong support of the former although it gotsubstantial support from the western world too, thanks to its policy ofNon-Alignment. But the collapse of the Soviet Union has made itimperative for India to look elsewhere to fill the vaccum created by thestoppage or at least substantial reduction in economic and strategicsupport it got from the former. Hence, apart from strengtheningeconomic and strategic cooperation with US, Israel, EU and China, theushering in a new chapter of relationship with the Southeast Asiancountries has become one of the most important goals of India’s foreignpolicy since the end of the cold war. The ‘Look East Policy’ is theframework through which this goal is sought to be achieved.The ‘Look East Policy’ was unveiled by the Congress Government inthe early nineties. There is a three-pronged approach in the ‘Look EastPolicy’. First, to renew political contacts with the ASEAN-membernations; second, to increase economic interaction with South East Asiain trade, investment, science and technology, tourism, etc.; and third,to forge strategic and defence links with several countries of SouthEast Asia. The success of the foreign policy of the Congress Governmentis indicated by the way this ‘Look East Policy’ bore fruit quickly. InJanuary 1992, India was able to establish the first institutional linkagewith ASEAN by becoming a sectoral dialogue partner of ASEAN in specificareas like trade, investment, science and technology and training. Theinstitutional linkage was upgraded in 1995 when India became a fulldialogue partner of ASEAN. In 1996, the institutional linkage was furtherupgraded when India was admitted in ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) asa full dialogue partner. Since this ARF deals with security issues andhas a tremendous clout in Asia Pacific region, its membership is ofimmense strategic significance.But unfortunately, the NDA Government could not upgrade India’sinstitutional linkage with ASEAN significantly. Though it tried to getIndia included in the ASEAN+3 but the member countries of the ASEANturned down the request on the plea that India did not fall under the‘Geographical scope of East Asia’. This lackluster performance of NDAgovernment’s Foreign Policy is due to, among other things, imbalancesin the foreign policy whereby it concentrated excessively on somecountries to the neglect of others.But the present UPA Government, which commits itself by the commonminimum programme to promote multi-polarity in world relations andto intensify relationships with the East Asian countries, has alreadystarted to remove this imbalance in foreign policy. This is evident fromthe way this government is giving due attention to India’s relation withASEAN. Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh himself came to Guwahatito flag off the India-ASEAN car rally. This car rally, which passed throughMayanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singaporebefore concluding at Batam, Indonesia, will apart from generatinggoodwill between India and the members of ASEAN will provideopportunity to explore road linkage between India and ASEAN countries,attract commercial interest in the infrastructure along the route andpromote investment, tourism, etc., and will ultimately lead to economicintegration between India and ASEAN. Economic integration betweenIndia and ASEAN, apart from being conducive to the economicdevelopment of the country, is critically important for the developmentof North East India.In addition to the obvious economic benefits of closer cooperationbetween India and ASEAN, the strategic benefits are not less significant.Since India has defined its region of strategic importance as extendingfrom Malacca Straits to the Persian Gulf, the relationship with ASEANhas got substantial strategic significance. The need to ensure that arising China does not geopardise India’s interest has further enhancedthis significance.The UPA Government, true to its commitment towards national interest,understands this significance. And this is the reason Prime Minister,Dr. Manmohan Singh has concluded the historic ‘ASEAN-IndiaPartnership for peace, progress and shared prosperity’ pact with leadersof the ASEAN countries at the third India- ASEAN summit at Vientine onNovember 30, 2004. This agreement – which outlines a multi-prongedaction plan for boosting trade, investment, tourism, culture, sports andpeople to people contacts – will not only go a long way towards economicintegration between India and ASEAN but will also further India’s multifacetedstrategic interest. The plan to “build institutional linkages forintelligence and information sharing, exchange of information andcooperation in legal and enforcement matters” and to “exploredeveloping anti-terrorism cooperation and assistance packages coveringamong others immigration controls, customs cooperation, land, air andsea safety” will contribute immensely to India’s national security fromthe menace of international terrorism. The agreement “to foster closercooperation in reforming and democratizing United Nations andinstitutions under it by making them more reflective of the contemporaryrealities” will greatly help India in its endeavour to get a permanentseat in the UN Security Council with veto power. Hence, it is clear thatthe UPA Government is not only making great stride in the ‘Look EastPolicy’, it is also ensuring that this policy contribute substantially to theultimate objective of promoting national interest. ❖(The writer is spokesman of Assam Pradesh Youth Congress. Theviews expressed here are his own.)July, 2005Congress Sandesh19
Page 1 and 2: Rs. 10Vol. VII No. 11July, 2005CONG
Page 4 and 5: Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singhat
Page 6 and 7: Letter to the EditorDismiss Raje Go
Page 8 and 9: Terror Struck AgainThe timing of th
Page 10 and 11: Honouredby the legacy of our immedi
Page 12 and 13: Putin, Sonia Gandhi For BringingPeo
Page 14 and 15: CP’s Russia Visitneed to strength
Page 16 and 17: Economically Vital ProjectSpeechSon
Page 18 and 19: Congress Condemn Terrorist AttackAy
Page 20 and 21: Showers of Rain and EmpathyOpinionP
Page 24 and 25: Rahul Gandhi’s BirthdayRemeberenc
Page 26 and 27: ANDHRA PRADESHSandesh Yatra Appeal
Page 28 and 29: States WatchThe speakers reiterated
Page 30 and 31: States WatchAddressing newspersons
Page 32 and 33: ReportMahila CongressDuring May and
Page 34 and 35: AICCDiaryCODE OF ETHICS03.06.2005:
Page 36: Photofile1 23 4␣␣5 671. TNCC ge

CONGRESS SANDESH COMPLETES ITS SEVEN YEAR

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