NEW DELHI, Aug 3 – India is generally supportive of the move to turn the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) from a charitable organisation into an international entity, said Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia.
“From the way I look at it, I think India is supportive in general,” he said, after meeting several key speakers during his six-day official visit to India.
Pandikar Amin met India’s Parliamentary Speaker Meira Kumar and Minister of Parliament Affairs, Kamal Nath in New Delhi as well as Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly of West Bengal, Biman Banerjee and former speaker of West Bengal, Abdul Halim in Kolkata.
“When I talked to Former Speaker, Halim, he admitted that the idea of changing the constitution of the CPA actually originated from him and has been fighting for it for the past 20 years,” he told Bernama at the end of his visit here, today.
It is understood that South Africa, which would be hosting the coming 59th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in Johannesburg from Aug 28 to Sept 6 has sought out Malaysia’s help in getting India’s support.
Hence, besides enhancing Malaysia-India parliamentary relations, Pandikar’s visit was also to help South Africa lobby for India’s support.
The host country, he said was going all out to make the changes.
“If the change materializes, it will bring a major change to the CPA. It can function more aggressively. It will be a different ball game,” said Pandikar Amin.
India’s support was crucial as they had the most number of delegates, he said.
The CPA is an Association of Commonwealth Parliamentarians. The Association’s mission is to promote the advancement of parliamentary democracy by enhancing knowledge and understanding of democratic governance.
Active CPA Branches now exist in 175 national, state, provincial and territorial Parliaments, with a total membership of approximately 17,000 Parliamentarians.
– BERNAMA
