Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a 5 day visit to the African continent, to attend the BRICS summit. PM Modi is going to visit Rwanda, Uganda and South Africa in a matter of five days. PM Modi is the first Indian prime minister to visit this country. Today, he visited the Genocide Memorial built to commemorate the Rwandan genocide of 1994. He also visited the Rweru model village in the eastern province of Rwanda where he gifted 200 locally sourced cows as India’s contribution to Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Later in the day, the Indian PM also addressed a gathering of Indian community members in the country.
The Rwandan President Kagame had launched the “Girinka” programme in the small, landlocked east African country to help the economically weaker family. Girinka or the “one cow for one poor family” programme was launched in 2006, has benefitted nearly 3.5 lakh families so far. This beautiful scheme is personally supervised by the Rwandan President. PM Modi’s gift of 200 cows is a positive attempt at public diplomacy to boost relations between the two countries.
Secretary of Ministry of External Affairs (Economic Relations) T S Tirumurti termed this as an “important element” of the PM’s programme, as cows are culturally revered and gifting them is considered auspicious by the people of Rwanda. PM Modi’s visit to Rwanda is an attempt to boost ties between the two countries and to help the country to develop. There wouldn’t have been a better way of offering the hand of friendship to a country like Rwanda than this. Much like is the case in India, the cows are seen as a symbol of status in India and are gifted at auspicious occasions. The Girinka Programme has already proved to be a success in the state and with PM Modi’s gift to the villagers accompanied by President Kagame will improve the image of India and Indians in Rwanda. It will also give a new start for the fresh talks between the two countries over development and maintaining ties. The Girinka programme has given a stable source of income to the beneficiaries and it also provides nutrition to the people, especially children.
The Rwandan model for using cows as a means to achieve economic stability should be replicated by Indian states as well. A couple of months earlier, Tripura CM Biplab Deb’s statements that jobless youth can engage in dairy business were publically humiliated by the leftist cabal. MD of Amul had himself come to the rescue of Biplab Deb and had personally backed the statement made by the Tripura CM. The Amul MD gave the example of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) which has a business of $4 billion annually. Rwanda too which had become war torn is now able to recuperate primarily because of dairy farming on a large scale.
PM Modi has given the foreign policy all the seriousness it deserves ever since he assumed the role of PM in 2014. The Girinka gift and his meeting with the President of Rwanda will ensure smooth relations between the two countries but it will be too difficult to understand this for the leftist cabal and their blind followers.