Excelsior Correspondent
BELGRADE, Oct 14: India’s Parliamentary system has evolved over the years and India’s Parliamentary practices are today being emulated by other democracies of the world.
This was stated here today by Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh during his visit to the 80 year old National Assembly House of the Republic of Serbia where he was formally received by the Speaker, Ms. Maja Gojkovic who is herself a veteran parliamentarian and other senior members of the Assembly Secretariat.
Referring to the evolution of democracy in India during the last seven decades of independence, Dr Jitendra Singh said, today the functioning of the government is directly linked to elaborately conducted Parliament debates and the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has highest regard for the privileges and prerogatives of the Parliament.
In a one-to-one interaction, Speaker Maja Gojkovic, while extending her greetings to the visiting Minister, recalled her last visit to India as a Parliamentarian over 25 years ago. She said, the most unique distinction in the relations between the two countries is that, all these years, there had never been any outstanding issues between the two countries, as a result of which, there was always a definite comfort level between the two governments and the two nations.
On a philosophical note, Speaker Gojkovic said, even though the two countries of India and Serbia are quite distantly apart located from each other in geographical terms, but they have always been otherwise close to each other. She said, there is scope to work out various projects and plans which can be jointly worked out by the two nations.
Dr Jitendra Singh extended Speaker Maja Gojkovic an invitation to visit India and said, we look forward to her visit to take place around February next year. He said, both the Chairman of India’s Upper House (Rajya House) Hamid Ansari as well as the Speaker of India’s Lower House (Lok Sabha) Sumitra Mahajan would be pleased to have her in their midst. He also emphasized the need for a greater exchange of Parliamentary groups and elected representatives between India and Serbia.
In response, Speaker Gojkovic confirmed that she looked forward to visit India in February 2017. Before seeing off Dr Jitendra Singh and the accompanying team, Maja Gojkovic also showed them the historic plaque and the hall where the first ever meeting of the founder members of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was held in 1961.
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