“Bharat Mata ki Jai” slogans reverberated at the World Hindi Conference closing ceremony when Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad said that India is one of the world leaders in terms of economy and politics, and a big leader of developing countries.

Amidst chants of Bharat Mata Ki Jai, Prasad said, “India is one of the world leaders in terms of economy, politics and a big leader of developing countries. India is moving in the right direction under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi and External Affairs minister S Jaishankar.” “In the last few 10-15 years, the propaganda and dissemination of Hindi and how Hindi is taught has been reduced, it has been made weak. But our government has taken steps to strengthen Hindi,” he added.

Deputy PM also said that the promotion and dissemination of the Hindi language in Fiji have been going on for the last 140 years. “Today when I remember my ancestors, they did not bring Ramayana, or Geeta with them but they brought their culture along with them,” he added.

Meanwhile, MoS V Muraleedharan, who was also here, said that Hindi media, cinema, and various mediums of mass communication have opened new doors of possibilities to expand Hindi as a global language by making proper use of systems like IT, Artificial intelligence.

“This conference is realizing the need to develop the World Hindi Secretariat as a multinational organization and to establish its regional centers in other parts of the world including the Pacific region so that the world civilization gets proper cooperation of Hindi’s capabilities,” he added.

Earlier, External Affairs Minister Jaishankar said, “I think everyone is hopeful that this conference will be a Mahakumbh of Hindi where people from all over the world will come. It will become a platform for a global networking platform in the subject of Hindi.”

“Our goal is how to make Hindi a world language and this conference becomes a platform where every Hindi lover can participate,” he added.

He also stated that India has assured Fiji that they will help to fulfill the demand for the teachings of Hindi, Tamil, and many other languages.

EAM Jaishankar thanked the Fiji government, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), and the Ministry of External Affairs for making this event successful.

Recalling Fiji’s President Wiliame Katonivere’s comment on Hindi Cinema’s impact, Jaishankar said that Katonivere said that Hindi film has a great impact on him, and his favorite without any doubt is “Sholay.” He also said that Katonivere still remembers the song “Wo Dosti”

Jaishankar and Muraleedharan are in Fiji from February 15-17.