New Delhi: The struggle for human rights is inseparable from the defence of democracy, former President of Chile Michelle Bachelet said Wednesday after being conferred the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development by Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
Bachelet, the only woman to have served as the President of Chile, is the 37th recipient of the award, which was instituted in 1986 by the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, chaired by Sonia Gandhi. In her opening remarks, Sonia Gandhi praised Bachelet as an inspiring leader and drew parallels between her and the former prime minister.
“Michelle Bachelet has seen, at first hand, loss, oppression, torture and exile in her early years. It is a remarkable coincidence that both these women were born and raised in times of strife. Their country, their people, their family and they themselves were victims of subjugation,” Sonia Gandhi said.
Bachelet, who served as President from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2018, is a key figure in Chile’s centre-left politics and a member of the Socialist Party of Chile. After her presidency, she became the first Executive Director of UN Women and later served as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2018 to 2022.
Bachelet said Indira Gandhi’s legacy, one that sought to expand human freedom while pursuing peace, justice and progress, remains highly relevant.
“She believed that nations could prosper only if they lived in harmony with one another. This belief feels even more urgent in today’s fragmented world. One of the causes that deeply moved Indira Gandhi is also what inspired me to enter politics – to improve the welfare of the people. Early in my life, I realised that people’s wellbeing is closely linked to respect for human rights,” she said.
Bachelet, who first visited India in 2009 while serving as President, added that multilateralism is essential for addressing the challenges facing humanity.
“To be honest, at times when I look at the world today, I feel not so optimistic. That is why I think multilateralism is more needed than ever. We need to give global responses to global challenges; otherwise, humanity will not have a good time,” she said.
The trustees of the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust include Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Suman Dubey and Kanishka Singh.
Members of the jury include former National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, former Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed, former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, Suman Dubey, social activist Aruna Roy and former Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu.
Previous awardees include the last president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, and former US President Jimmy Carter.
Both Muhammad Yunus, the current chief advisor of Bangladesh, and Sheikh Hasina, who was deposed as prime minister last year, which led to Yunus’s rise, are also among the past recipients of the award.
(Edited by Sampurna Panigrahi)