Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit's Portrait To Be In UNGA President's Office

The United Nations General Assembly president Maria Fernanda Espinosa has expressed her desire to install the portrait of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit in her office. Espinosa said that she finds Pandit as an inspiration for becoming the first woman ever to hold the office of UNGA president, said an Indian MP who met the president on Friday, The Hindu reported.

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Prem Das Rai of the Sikkim Democratic Front met Espinosa in an event which saw a group of MPs. At the event, she said that as a woman to take up the responsibility of the president’s office at UNGA, she found motivation from Pandit’s pioneering work at the UN.

After Pandit, it took UNGA 16 years to find another woman president in Angie Elisabeth Brooks of Liberia. She became the Assembly president in 1969. The third woman president took more time than the second one as Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa of Bahrain became the UNGA president in 2006—that is 37 years from 1969.

Rai belonged to a delegation that showed a cross-section of India’s political parties and geography and are members of India’s delegation to the Assembly. He said that Espinosa pointed out that she respects Indian democracy. She said she also considers India as a country from which to draw inspiration, pointing to a book on Mahatma Gandhi in her office.

Espinosa, who is from Ecuador, is only the fourth woman to ascend to the ranks of the president while 69 men have been president at UNGA in the past. UNGA elected Pandit to become the president in 1953.

Pandit, sister of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and the other three women presidents of UNGA have one thing in common, which is that they all belonged to a developing nation. After Pandit, it took UNGA 16 years to find another woman president in Angie Elisabeth Brooks of Liberia. She became the Assembly president in 1969. The third woman president took more time than the second one as Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa of Bahrain became the UNGA president in 2006—that is 37 years from 1969. And now Espinosa took to the position after 12 years.

Picture credit- Financial Express

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