'India needs to play bigger role in civilisation harmony'

Over 2,500 participants including heads of state, foreign affairs ministers, NGOs, civil society representatives, media, academia and the corporate sector met in Doha from December 11-13, to discuss how intercultural dialogue can boost development the world over.

They also discussed ways to improve relations across cultures, combat prejudice and build lasting peace through joint actions.

The opening ceremony of the fourth Annual Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations was addressed by Ban Ki-moon, secretary general, United Nations, Heinz Fischer, president, Austria, Michel Temer, vice president, Brazil, Christian Wulff, president, Germany and Jorge Sampaio, high representative, UNAOC and former president, Portugal.
India was represented by minister of state for external affairs E Ahamed, and NGOs including UNAOC’s Indian partners like Global Foundation for Civilisational Harmony (India), headed by Subhash Chandra, Chairman, Essel Group.
Under the theme ‘Intercultural Dialogue to Boost Development’, high-level debates on how advancing towards the goals of the UNAOC can contribute to foster sustainable development and, in particular, achievement of the MDGs, were conducted.
Ten years after 9/11, the Doha Forum also focussed on West-Islam relations, the raison d’être of the Alliance, and discussed means to counter rising discrimination, prejudices and hate speech that fuel tensions and extremism.
Partnership with a number of media organisations like Al Jazeera, Google, France 24, Euronews, National Geographic, MNCs like BMW for the intercultural innovation award, or research centers like the Brookings Institute was another highlight of the Doha Forum.
Brazilian vice president Temer projected the India-Brazil-South Africa dialogue forum as a model for development through inter-cultural dialogue. He repeatedly referred to Mahatma Gandhi and his vision of inter-cultural dialogue for establishing harmony and peace.
The UN Alliance of Civilisations, created in 2005, is an initiative of former general secretary Kofi Annan and the governments of Spain and Turkey. Its mission is to improve the quality of dialogue between nations and people of cultures and religions.
However, despite its history as a haven for all prosecuted religions and civilisations since time immemorial — from Jews and Zoroastrians in the hoary past to the Tibetans in the recent past — and the wide respect it commands for its pluralistic, multi-religious, multi-linguistic, multi-ethnic harmony, India is yet to play a major role in this highly influential forum.
Though it has been a member of the ‘Group of Friends’ of UNAOC since its inception and the Indian prime minister has been a regular invitee to the annual events, New Delhi has been deputing only its ministers of state for external affairs to attend them, which apparently reflects the foreign ministry’s underestimation of the forum’s strength.
Moreover, India, which has been liberal in funding UN bodies like UNESCO, has not contributed a penny to the AOC kitty till date.
The Global Foundation for Civilisational Harmony (India), UNAOC’s key partner in India, has offered to host a conference of spiritual leaders from the world over against terrorism. The foundation has also offered to support an intra-country project of the UNAOC on migration, wherein a video would be produced to bridge the communication gap between people in Northeast India and the rest of the country.
In 2012, India, as a role model for inclusive development and a millennia-old society of inter-cultural dialogue and harmony, should play its due role in the UNAOC.