Former Indian Ambassador Empowers Young People

By Sarah Acosta
sacosta@smu.edu

Former Ambassador of India Swashpawan Singh met with students and faculty in the Collins Business Center Tuesday to discuss the country’s current state of affairs and the obstacles it still faces.

Singh’s History

Singh has had many positions with the Indian Foreign Service over the past three decades. From January 2002- October 2005 he served as the ambassador of India to Kuwait and thereafter as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations until 2008.

During Singh’s time as ambassador to Kuwait he worked on the committee that negotiated the release of the Indian hostages in Iraq in 2004. Singh also took part in several human rights committees and served as the Personal Representative of the Indian Prime Minister in Geneva.

Future Relies on Young People

Singh pressed the message to SMU students that it is up to the young people of our nations (India and the U.S.) to come together to solve issues of terrorism, climate change, migration, energy security, pandemics, etc.

“The future of the world must rely a lot more on young people,” Singh said. “You guys are the ones who have to take on board some of the difficulties that my generation has created and find solutions.”

Singh said that young people need to examine recent history to see what went well and what didn’t to find remedies for obstacles our nation faces. He believes that India and the U.S. can work together as partners in addressing important international issues.

“Young people in both of our countries need to learn to talk and understand one another,” Singh said. “I think it’s important to come and spend time with university students and get feedback from students to see how they perceive different parts of the world and India.”

Technology: Filling in the Gaps

Singh believes technology has been a major break through, especially with communication.

“With globalization, our world is getting smaller,” Singh said. “Modern communication represents different perspectives and exchange of these perspectives.”

Social networks like Twitter and Facebook are ways of modern communication where U.S. students would be able to reach Indian students.

According to Singh, 90,000 Indian students attend college in the U.S. With American students in India and Indian students in the U.S, Singh believes that the younger U.S. generation will increasingly be more engaged with the world.

“With [the United States'] large economy and worldwide presence, it’s important to know what is happening in our part of the world,” Singh said. “Greater communication and knowledge of each other can help remove the communication and information gaps.”

India and U.S. Friendship

The ambassador pointed out the similarities between the U.S. and India.

“The U.S. is a friend of India’s and we share so many values and so many similarities,” he said. “For example, we are both secular, democracies, liberals, have shared experience of colonialism in the past, freedom of expression, etc.”

Singh believes that because of these similarities, young Indians and Americans can easily understand each other and can work together to solve some of world’s major problems.

The Reality on Human Rights

Because he has served on multiple human rights councils and organizations, Singh understands the value as well as the pitfalls of human rights initiatives.

He explained that human rights operates on a normative level, which means at the level of international law where there are treaties, conventions, and united nation sponsored solutions.

“There’s a gap between what countries agree to and what actually gets implemented on the ground,” Singh said. “Unless human rights becomes functional from the ground and begins to effect the lives of people whose human rights are not being honored it remains largely an exercise that is theoretical and some ways unreal.”

Singh hopes for future young people to find a way to fill this gap between intention and action. He said young people must first understand the issues and then be able to work with their own government to make human rights realities.