INDIA, April 28, 2012 (India Today): The Indian system is fair and best in the world when it comes to acknowledging the contribution of women, India’s top diplomat to the U.S. has said.
This is amply demonstrated in the very fact she being a women rose to be the highest position in Indian diplomacy, Indian Ambassador to the U.S. Nirupama Rao told students of the University of Florida in her Commencement Address.
“In the years since when I came to be a diplomat, the impact that women have on public life in India has also grown from strength to strength. For example, I was privileged to head India’s Foreign Service as the Foreign Secretary for two years from 2009 to 2011. It was a unique experience in every way,” she said.
Diplomacy, the field to which she belongs, Rao said was for long the exclusive preserve of men and this was very evident when she became a Foreign Service officer in 1973. “Of course, the fact that we had a woman Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi at the time, was a revolutionary development not only for India, but for the world. It made our ascent as women much more acceptable to society, at large,” Rao said.