India loves celebrating and recognising its diversity, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said, as she paid glowing tributes to Dr B R Ambedkar, the architect of India’s Constitution, at an event here.
“We always had this diversity. It’s a country which loves celebrations. It’s a country which loves celebrating and recognising its diversity,” Sitharaman told a gathering of Indian-Americans at the popular India House, the residence of India’s envoy to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, at an event here to celebrate the New Year being observed across the country in multiple ways.
“Even as we’re doing all this per auspicious calendar, each one of us follow, either based on the Sun horoscope or moon horoscope. They’re all around the same time. But based on the calendar year, April 14 marks the birthday of Dr Ambedkar,” she said.
“So here as I’m standing before, largely an Indian crowd, but of course senior officials of the US administration, when I say that India enjoys diversity, celebrates diversity, there can always be times when there is friction here on days when you have so many different people of diverse backgrounds,” she said.
The Finance Minister is in the US for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank spring meeting.
She said that Dr Ambedkar stands out in distinction to show how, despite the background from which it comes, learned from his teacher, in fact took his teacher’s name for his own.
Benefited by the scholarship given by a ruler of Baroda, he came to Columbia to do law. Came back and was a veritable fountainhead of so many different thoughts which constitution makers of India had, and the discussions were long and elaborated, post which India’s constitution was ready, she said. “They were eminent people in that group which prepared the Constitution of India. Dr Babasaheb headed that group. And he’s given the Constitution is what all of us would say we recognize him for the contribution that he’s made,” she said.