New Delhi, March 18: India’s diplomats may be good speakers and writers of the English language. But that is proving insufficient to win friends and influence people, particularly in the non-English speaking world. Fortunately, this is on the mend.
The ministry of external affairs has decided to launch websites in Arabic and Bengali to reach out to 300 million Arabic speakers in 20- odd countries in North Africa and West Asia and 150 million Bengali speakers in Bangladesh.
For long, the ministry had websites only in English and Hindi. Last year, an Urdu one was set up to reach out to people in the subcontinent who speak the language. “The website received tremendous response within months of its launch, particularly in Pakistan. Now, it averages 6,000 hits a day,” a ministry official said.
The Urdu website’s success has encouraged the ministry to launch similar ones in Arabic and Bengali.
Recent diplomatic successes with Bangladesh and Arabic-speaking countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, are also being seen as a reason.
New Delhi attaches considerable importance to the Arab world. The region is important for India’s energy requirements and for the large number of Indians who work there. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Saudi Arabia only a fortnight back.
“Many journalists, academicians and common people in Arab countries are not comfortable with English. The website will bridge the communication gap,” said the official. The ministry, he added, hopes to get on board good Bengali and Arabic translators.
The website in Bengali will cater to academicians and the strong Bengali media in Bangladesh.
With relations at an unprecedented high, the ministry believes its Bengali website will help consolidate the process. The plan comes just over two months after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s India visit in mid-January, a trip she described as “successful”.
Officials say websites in Urdu, Bengali and Arabic will help India spread its message to a wider non-English speaking population in its immediate neighbourhood.
Next in the line: external affairs ministry websites in Spanish, French and Tamil.
