Culture & Education | Monday 5 February, 2018 1:08 am |

Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj will be leading an Indian delegation for the inauguration on Feb. 7 of the Saudi National Festival for Heritage and Culture (Janadriya festival) in which India is the guest of honor this year.

This was announced by Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Gen. V.K. Singh at a joint press conference with Minister of National Guard and Chairman of the Supreme Committee of the Janadriya festival Prince Khalid Bin Ayyaf here on Sunday.

Appreciating India’s civilizational richness and cultural diversity, Prince Ayyaf underscored that India’s participation in the Janadriya festival will not only raise the level of the festival, but will also further enhance close bilateral engagements between the two countries.

Gen. Singh said that it was a matter of great honor for India to be invited as the Guest of Honor country for the prestigious Saudi national festival. 

“We greatly value our close and deep rooted civilizational and strategic relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This relationship got further impetus and new direction after the historic visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Kingdom in 2016.

The Kingdom is also home to more than 3 million Indian community. I have no doubt that India’s participation in this festival will take our relationship to new heights,” said Gen. Singh.

He said that India’s participation in the festival will be multifaceted.

“We will have an Indian pavilion which will show the glimpses of traditional and modern India. There will be displays and presentations by ministries/departments such as Indian Ordnance Factories Board, ISRO, Ministry of AYUSH, India Tourism board, Ministry of Shipping, Ministry of Textiles, Handicrafts Promotion Council, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Skill development, Digital India etc.”

India pavilion will also have presentations representing the country’s socio-cultural heritage, folklore, traditional costumes, perfumes, bridal costumes, artifacts, specimen of calligraphy, Arabic manuscripts etc, food at the Flavors of India.

The Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) is sending nine different cultural troupes for the cultural performances which include Kathakali, Kalariyaptu, Kathak, Manipuri, Chhau, Bangra, Bollywood, Gujarati and Rajasthani.

There will be cultural performances in all the evenings in this 18-day festival. There will be cultural performances by Indian school children and the Indian community as well. 

Yoga performances have also been arranged every day. Bollywood movies will also be screened during the festival.

A number of Indian companies are also putting up their stalls in the Indian Pavilion including L&T, Tata Motors, Lulu Group, TCIL, Al Abeer Medical Group, ITL Group, Jet Airways, Shapoorji Pallonji, Virat, Aster Med city, KRBL Rice, Toshi Electronic etc. FICCI is the industry partner in this endeavor and has put together the Indian Pavilion.

Deputy Minister of National Guard and Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Committee of National Festival (Janadriya) Abdul Mohsen Bin Abdulaziz Al-Tuwaijri, Indian Ambassador Ahmad Javed, Deputy Chief of Mission Dr. Suhel Aijaz Khan, First Secretary Dr. Hifzur Rahman Azmi were also present during the press conference.

Earlier, Gen. Singh and Prince Ayyaf had a bilateral meeting.