Video: Indian expats mark 76th Republic Day with colourful celebrations across UAE

Dubai/ Abu Dhabi: Waving tricolour flags and hailing their home country, Indian expats in the UAE marked the 76th Republic Day of India with colourful celebrations on Sunday.

Thousands of members of the over four-million-strong Indian expat community ditched their morning slumber and braved the chilly weather to attend the flag hoisting ceremonies held at the Indian Consulate in Dubai and the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi at 7am and 8am respectively.

Indian Ambassador to the UAE Sunjay Sudhi unfurled the flag at the embassy while the Consul General of India in Dubai Satish Kumar Sivan hoisted the tricolour at the consulate. The diplomats also read out excerpts from the Republic Day message of the Indian President Droupadi Murmu.

Commemorating the day the Indian Constitution came into effect on January 26 in 1950, community members took part in cultural programmes and paid tributes to the freedom fighters, soldiers and farmers of India.

Azimuddin Khan, who works with a logistics company in Jebel Ali, and his wife Umme Habiba attended the ceremony with their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Maha.

“I used to attend the celebrations with friends and now I come with my family. This is our second time bringing our daughter. It is very cold in the morning but we felt it was important for us to show our patriotism and we want to inculcate that in our daughter from a young age,” said Khan, who hails from Uttar Pradesh.

Romesh Hirani, a trader of luxury watches, got dressed up for the occasion and carried a flag with him.

“I have been in the UAE for 20 years and I don’t miss these celebrations at the consulate. I got my outfit from Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Uttar Pradesh when I visited last vacation and kept it specially to wear on this day. India is our motherland and there is no excuse not to celebrate it. But, being here in the UAE, we feel at home as if you are at your brother’s house,” said Hirani, who is from Maharashtra.

Pranita Prashanth, a grade 8 student of Sharjah Indian School, was one of the performers at the consulate.

“We left home at 5.30am. It was really cold but we were thrilled about the performance. I felt so proud to present a patriotic dance along with my schoolmates. Being raised in the UAE, I feel we are lucky to get these opportunities. We often feel that the UAE is more Indianised than some parts of India, thanks to the huge number of Indians here and the great hospitality we receive here,” said Prashanth, whose family is from Kerala.

In Abu Dhabi, the Ambassador paid floral tributes at the bust of Mahatma, India’s Father of the Nation and honoured the members of the expat community who became the UAE toppers of the ‘Bharat Ko Janiye’ (Know India) Quiz which was conducted by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs for overseas Indians in view of the Republic Day.

In his address, Sudhir stated that India-UAE relations are exceptional, marked by mutual trust and respect.

“While India has engaged with all its partners around the globe, the India-UAE relationship stands apart,” he said.

Sudhir said the past 18 months have witnessed unprecedented high-level exchanges—Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the UAE thrice, the UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited India twice and in September last year, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, visited India at the invitation of Modi, marking a very unique generational continuity.

The establishment of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi in Abu Dhabi and the first overseas office of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in Dubai has been part of efforts to enhance the ease of living for Indians in the UAE.

“We will soon have, this year, campuses of IIM A (Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad) and IIFT (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade] in Dubai,” he said.

The envoy hailed the contributions of the Indian expat community as “one of the most critical socio-economic pillars of strength of the UAE as well as of India-UAE relations.”

“Your contribution to the economy and development of the UAE is widely recognised, not only by the leaders and government of the UAE, but also by the Emiratis in general.  Your sincerity in giving back to the motherland is a vital cog in the wheel of Indian nation building,” Sudhir said.

Thanking the UAE government and the rulers for their graciousness and generosity towards the Indian community here, he said: “The UAE is a manifestation of their vision of building a country and society premised on peace, harmony, tolerance, and brotherhood.”

Meanwhile, the Consul General urged Indian expatriates to rededicate themselves to preserving the values of justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity that are enshrined in the Indian Constitution.

While India is the fifth largest economy, he said the Indian community in the UAE is the second largest contributor to the Foreign Exchange Remittances into India which touched a record $125 billion last year.

He said a beautiful facet of the community was revealed during the UAE Visa Amnesty period late last year when more than 15,000 Indian nationals were serviced entirely at the Consulate with the help of the dedicated group of volunteers. He said the Amnesty became a lifeline bringing smiles and tears of joy to families, who reunited after several decades in many cases, and thanked the UAE government and the community volunteers from various expat groups and places of worship.

Sivan also announced a new community welfare initiative that the Consulate is planning to roll out in partnership with Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre (KMCC)—cyber awareness and digital literacy sessions for Indian workers.  “We hope that it will be an important step towards preventing the labour community falling victim to cyber frauds and also gain critical life skills in the process. We hope to push Indian workers up the value chain being cognisant of the huge capabilities that they possess,” he added.