Nelson Mandela, an icon of Sacrifice and Reconciliation had a special regard for India. He called Gandhiji his 'political guru' and a 'role model'. His first destination abroad in 1990 after spending 27 years behind bars was India which was the land of "Satya and Ahima" for him.
India conferred him with the Bharat Ratna (1990), the nation's highest civilian honour even before he got the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993. Mandela was the first non-Indian recipient of Bharat Ratna.
Mandela always praised Gandhi for his principles of 'Satya and Ahimsa' and followed his philosophy.
At an unveiling of Gandhi Memorial in South Africa in1993 Mandela said:
"The Mahatma is an integral part of our history because it is here that he first experimented with truth; here that he demonstrated his characteristic firmness in pursuit of justice; here that he developed Satyagraha as a philosophy and a method of struggle."
"Gandhi is most revered for his commitment to non-violence and the Congress Movement was strongly influenced by this Gandhian philosophy, it was a philosophy that achieved the mobilisation of millions of South Africans during the 1952 defiance campaign, which established the ANC as a mass-based organisation,"
Let us salute this great man who had great respect for our nation and the people by "reaffirming his vision of a society in which none is exploited, oppressed or dispossessed by another".
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