“Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister touched the soul of India,” declared well known author, community leader and social activist Sam Pynummoodu who inaugurated the 26th Martyrdom Day event of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 2017 at the residence of Rajiv Gandhi Awards Committee Chairman Markos Williams.

Members of the Indian community in Kuwait observed May 21 as Communal Harmony Day with representatives from the Hindu, Christian , Muslim and Sikh community speaking on the occasion.

Quoting Rajiv Gandhi’s grandfather Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who said “Who lives if India dies”, Sam Pynummoodu traced the rich cultural, political and secular heritage of Rajiv Gandhi and explained that the secular votes gathered together to usher him into office between 1984 and 1989 with an astounding majority. “The last three years has seen a subversion of the democratic spirit of the Indian Constitution with brazen attempts being made to impose on the people of India the type of attire they should wear, the kind of food to eat and what they should talk” he said.

“Rajiv Gandhi supported the Bill for Muslim Personal Law in Parliament and ushered in a golden era and he was a symbol of communal harmony,” said Kanneth Sharafuddeen, a prominent community leader who has rendered yeoman service as the President of the Kuwait Kerala Muslim Cultural Center and Director of NORKA Welfare Board, a Government of Kerala NRI Affairs Organisation. He added that Rajiv Gandhi was responsible for the advent of social media when he opened the floodgates of knowledge by making computers and television easily available. “We need a secular government in India, otherwise the Federal Government will collapse,”Sharafuddeen Kanneth emphasised.

Speaking on the occasion, K.E. Subramanian, Vice President at NBK Capital said from an economic viewpoint, the Technology Missions of Rajiv Gandhi helped transform India from a socialistic society to a society that embraced capitalism. “By introducing computers in India despite the fears that it would take away jobs, Rajiv Gandhi ensured that India would thrive in the services sector and he laid the technology foundation for the changes that we have witnessed in India in the last two decades,” Subramanian stated.

Gurmeet Singh Mallah who is the President of the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Welfare and Vichar Manch in Kuwait spoke of the difficulties students face in the Indian state of Punjab with educational fees skyrocketing many times and added that the educational sector was not beset with such problems during the premiership of Rajiv Gandhi. “There was communal harmony with people of all religions at peace with each other during Rajiv Gandhi’s regime and this is now absent,” Gurmeet Singh Malla said.

Miss Aparna Sashidaran administered the Anti Terrorism Pledge which calls for working “for the emotional oneness and harmony of all the people of India regardless of caste, creed, religion or language and resolving differences through dialogue and constitutional means without resorting to violence”.

At the conclusion of the event all present paid floral tributes to Rajiv Gandhi and RGAC Chairman Markos Williams quoting Rajiv Gandhi said, “The prism of geography may color our peoples differently, but in the white light we are one humanity.”