New Delhi: For the first time, ICCR celebrated World Culture Day on Monday with a memorial lecture delivered by Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj.
The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), which is entrusted to work for cultivating India’s “soft power diplomacy”, has taken several new initiatives to explore and spread the cultural message of India with several countries across the globe.
Addressing the gathering, ICCR President Vinay Sahasrabuddhe said,“India enjoys goodwill across the world and a need is felt to further consolidate it by adopting a more focused approach for spreading understanding about Indian culture, civilization and the people.”
Sushma Swaraj delivering the first Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Memorial International lecture on ‘Soft Power Diplomacy: Strength of India’, said, “i would like to congratulate ICCR President Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and his team. Couldn’t be better topic choosen for the World Culture day. I would like to thank for choosing me to orate first lecture. I have to give lecture on ‘Soft Power Diplomacy: Strength of India. Soft Power is a old thing in international diplomacy.There were and are different interpretations for soft power. If i say the truth. There is a huge difference in both the words soft and power.if i talk about power Lion comes in our mind and for the word soft rabbit comes in our mind. There is no relation between these two animals i feel.”
She further said, “There is a storm of protectionism at the global level which is centred around the concept of Me and Myself but India believes in the concept of We, Us and Ourselves. If everyone views the other as equal then there is no place for protectionism in it.”
