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Bharat Joshi

British Deputy High Commissioner, Chennai

Part of UK in India

25th November 2013 Chennai, India

Anniversaries: From India to Dallas to Istanbul

It feels as if it’s been a month of anniversaries, some happy, some sad.

HRH The Prince of Wales

On the positive side, we celebrated the Prince of Wales’ 65th birthday in Kerala – a date which, as he said, he proudly shares with Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru. On Friday, I was asked to open the 2013 Cultural Festival for the Platinum Celebration of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Chennai, a historic and priceless global cultural institution that has embedded in its DNA the support of some of the great Indian nationalists, including Gandhiji, Nehru and ‘Sardar’ Patel. I should also mention my mum’s 75th on 11/11 – Remembrance Day.

Far more tragically, there was lots of coverage over the week-end of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F Kennedy. It’s extraordinary how the shock of watching the footage does not appear to diminish no matter how many times it’s shown. I was struck by how engrossed my young daughters were in something that happened long before their – and even my own – births.

Here in India, of course, 26 November the fifth anniversary of the horrendous terrorist attacks on civilian targets across Mumbai. As a student of Hotel Administration, the Taj Mumbai has always held a special place in my heart. I haven’t been back since.

As always, there’s a lot of navel-gazing about what could and should have been done differently. But I’ve seen a lot less, so far, about the families of the 156 killed and about the 600+ who were injured in such horrific circumstances. I hope they won’t be forgotten.

Ten years ago on 20 November another tragic event took place: the truck bomb attacks in Istanbul, including on the British Consulate that killed our Consul General, Roger Short, and xthers. I was a part of the FCO Rapid Deployment Team that travelled to Istanbul the ame day with then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. It’s impossible to describe the levels of distress and sadness we all experienceed at seeing the destruction caused in such a beautiful city and the human tragedy left its wake. I spent 2 weeks there, working out of the old US Consulate. It’s easily the hardest thing I’ve done as a Diplomat, but I know the team did a really tough job under the hardest circumstances. I’m really proud that I work for an organisation like mine where the leadership – the Foreign Secretary, William Hague and PUS, Simon Fraser, travelled to Turkey to honour those who died.

Finally, today is International Day for the elimination of Violence against Women. There’s something very sad about the fact that, in the 21st Century, we need such a day to remind us of the suffering of so many of half the world’s population. Raising and addressing gender issues including violence (especially sexual violence) were at least half of what I did in Cameroon.

I look back on the work we did with great pride, particularly the Womens’ Scholarship Scheme which sits at the heart of our plans to empower women and support the emergence of a generation of women leaders in that country.

I’m now starting to think about what we can usefully do in Chennai to support women: I’m struck that at  the meetings I go to, of politicians, business leaders, media houses, virtually all the participants are from the less fair sex. Suggestions on what, if anything, the British Deputy High Commission can do would be greatly appreciated.

3 comments on “Anniversaries: From India to Dallas to Istanbul

  1. Nearly two-thirds of the world’s illiterates are females. Education is the key to women empowerment. In my opinion, targeting and encouraging women from grass root level and providing access to education would greatly help.

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      Select commentRadha Badri
      radhabadri@yahoo.com
      117.208.215.249
      Submitted on 2013/11/28 at 12:30 pm
      Nearly two-thirds of the world’s illiterates are females. Education is the key to women empowerment. In my opinion, targeting and encouraging women from grass root level and providing access to education would greatly help.

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      Anniversaries: From India to Dallas to Istanbul
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      Select comment The Dealmaker Daily is out! Edition of 27 November 2013 | The Deal Daddy
      thedealdaddy.me/2013/11/27/the-dealmaker-daily-is…
      192.0.80.45
      Submitted on 2013/11/27 at 7:12 am
      […] Anniversaries and all that – Bharat Joshi […]

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      Anniversaries: From India to Dallas to Istanbul
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      Select commentBharat Joshi
      bharat.joshi@fco.gov.uk
      93.186.31.98
      Submitted on 2013/12/05 at 3:08 pm | In reply to The Dealmaker Daily is out! Edition of 27 November 2013 | The Deal Daddy.
      Thanks Radha.That’s good to know and supports what we did in Cameroon. What’s the best way of doing it in India?

      Also worth mentioning our Chevening Scholarships – our flagship programme for Postgraduate courses in the UK- and a new Gurukul Chevening Gurukul Scholarships, intense 12 week courses in the UK. Details on the UK in India website. Let’s get the word out: we need more good students from S India, and the deadline is approaching.

  2. Respected sir,Hope your Excellency read my comment on your speech in Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan& also how much i was impressed by your speech.I willbe very to get a reply from you.

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About Bharat Joshi

Bharat was brought up in Kent. He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1995 from the hotel industry and has had diplomatic postings to the Gambia, Dhaka and…

Bharat was brought up in Kent. He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1995 from the hotel industry and has
had diplomatic postings to the Gambia, Dhaka and Qatar. He was most
recently British High Commissioner to Cameroon, and non-Resident Ambassador to Gabon, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and Central African Republic.
Before that he worked as a Private Secretary to two British Ministers, as well as in various Departments of the FCO including the European Union Department and Press Office.
Bharat has experience of crisis management and has been deployed to the scenes of major incidents involving British nationals, including after the tragic bombing of the British Consulate-General in Istanbul in 2003.
Bharat’s varied career has been spent dealing with a full range of
HMG objectives, including promoting political and economic reform and
improved human rights; improved UK prosperity through trade; climate
change and UN policy issues. A major part of his portfolio in Chennai is supporting mutual prosperity between the UK and India, transforming lives through jobs, entrepreneurship and skills partnerships.
Bharat has been very happily married (at least forhim) to Bhakti for 18 years and they have two
wonderful daughters. His interests are cricket, badminton, history, reading and travelling.
Bharat speaks English, French, Gujarati and Hindi and Spanish, and is desperate to learn Tamil.