These parliamentary officials from Arab countries met the Lok Sabha Speaker after the conclusion of a Special Training Programme in Parliamentary Processes and Procedures for Parliamentary Officers.

This special training programme was organized by the Bureau for Parliamentary Studies and Training (BPST) of the Lok Sabha Secretariat from April 15 to 26 under an initiative taken by the Speaker. The Programme, which was inaugurated by the Indian Minister of External Affairs Salman Khurshid on April 15 and was attended by 16 participants from seven Arab countries, namely Algeria, Bahrain, Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen.

The Lok Sabha Secretary-General TK Viswanathan distributed Certificates of Completion to the participants.

The Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar told the participants said that the effectiveness of India’s parliamentary system was time-tested and parliamentary democracy has been able to maintain and preserve the nation’s representative character wherein the freedom and dignity of individuals were fully protected.

“As a vehicle of social change, Parliament has passed a large number of social and economic legislations to address the concerns of various segments of India’s pluralistic society,” she said.

The Lok Sabha Speaker said “India attaches special importance to its relationship with the Arabic-speaking countries. India has a warm and cordial relation with all the countries which nominated their officers for the Training Programme.”

She hoped that the training programme would prove to be yet another platform for strengthening India’s relations with these countries.

The Lok Sabha Speaker expressed satisfaction that the special training programme had given the participants an inside view of India’s parliamentary system.

“In our parliamentary form of polity, all authority emanates from the people in whom vests the sovereignty and people exercise this through the Parliament at the Union level and through the State Legislatures in the States. A country of more than a billion people, India has innumerable languages, multiple religions and an incredible number of communities.”

She was of the view that India’s multi-dimensional heterogeneity has started manifesting itself in the political life too and has led to the emergence of a distinct coalition culture.