In Delhi last April I expressed my hope that Mrs Gandhi would come to Britain for the opening of the Festival of India.
My hope is realised.
It is a great pleasure to welcome you here—the distinguished leader of a great country.
It will be difficult to match the warmth and hospitality with which I was received in India.
Difficult also to leave you with any memories quite as vivid as mine of that colourful morning in bamnauli village.
It ended with me garlanded and swathed in silk, Denis Thatchermy husband was made to look every inch the rajput warrior. [end p1]
The photographers enjoyed themselves almost as much as we did.
British television cameramen have ensured that that hectic and happy occasion has been well recorded for posterity.
We had a long session of private talks in Delhi.
We have been able to meet on two other occasions in the last year and now again this morning.
Four meetings in less than a year underlines the substance of our relations and the importance we both attach to them.
Both our countries play an important part in the affairs of the world. Our interests, political, strategic and economic, are widespread and there are few major international [end p2] which do not affect both of us.
This makes consultations between our two governments particularly important.
Our guest today is the Prime Minister of the world's largest democracy.
That word—democracy—has been given so many meanings in different parts of the world.
But for Britain and India it means what I have no hesitation in calling the best kind of democracy—Parliamentary democracy.
Appropriate therefore that you will be meeting the George ThomasSpeaker and Members of both Houses of Parliament on Wednesday. [end p3]
Prime Minister, you have, I am told, one and a half million constituents.
I have only fifty-five and a half thousand.
Which leads me to ask: How do you do it?
I am particularly glad that you have come to Britain for the opening of the Festival of India.
Many of us have long felt that it was time the great achievements of India, both ancient and modern, were brought before as wide a section of the British public as possible.
Now that idea has come to fruition.
We are about to embark upon one of the most varied and glittering cultural events which Britain has hosted. [end p4]
But Indian achievement does not just mean the glories of its cultural heritage.
I mentioned the village I visited last year. Its school was full of healthy enquiring children eager for knowledge.
Their parents were enthusiastically adopting new ways of improving their lands and their village. I recall too my visit to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and the very advanced research work I saw there.
Those were aspects of Indian culture in the making.
There is no greater myth than that of “Timeless unchanging India” —everywhere I saw change, growth, new forces and new ideas at work— [end p5] and one of the most important things this Festival can do is impress on us the tremendous vitality of India.
This evening our distinguished guest and I will attend the opening event of the Festival at the Festival Hall. Prince CharlesHis Royal Highness the Prince of Wales will be present.
The event will launch several days of special events to mark Indian achievement ancient and modern, artistic, cultural and scientific. [end p6]
It will launch, too, a period of months when the people of this country will have an unparalleled opportunity to learn more of a country with whom we have special links and for which we have special affection.
This is a very happy moment in relations between Britain and India.