SAARC Diary: “Khenrab a Symbol of India-Bhutan Friendship:” India
Venkatesh Iyer
NEW DELHI, Apr 1: A seven-year-old girl from Bhutan Khenrab Yeedzin Syelden, has enthralled India with her sweet message on “Vaccine Maitri” in which she expresses gratitude for India’s gift of 550,000 doses of ‘Made in India’ COVID-19 vaccines to Bhutan.
Her video message has been posted numerous times on social media, among eminent personalities, and has received extensive coverage in the Indian media.
Khenrab’s video clip in Hindi has been appreciated and admired through regional language tweets and Facebook posts in all major Indian states and metropolitan cities. In her endearing dialect her two sentences, “Shukriya Bharat,” have touched the hearts of thousands of people in India and Bhutan.
According to the Indian Embassy in Thimpu, Bhutan, “Khenrab is a symbol of India-Bhutan friendship and exemplifies the two countries’ close people-to-people relations.” She had previously presented the Indian National Anthem as a tribute to both the countries’ special ties on the occasion of Independence Day 2020. Khenrab has an India link since both her parents attended colleges in India.
Ambassador of India Ruchira Kamboj presented Khenrab with a Certificate of Appreciation, a Mobile, and a Chocolate Hamper on Thursday at a special function organised at the Embassy of India in recognition of her unique contribution that has helped further deepen India-Bhutan friendship on a people-to-people level.
Earlier, on March 27, Kamboj presided over the launch ceremony of the Bhutan Vaccination Programme, during which she said “the gift of 5,50,000 doses of the Made-in-India COVISHIELD vaccine is the truest manifestation of the friendship between India and Bhutan, arriving as these do at a time when India is confronted with our own national imperative to scale up vaccinations, following a resurgence of cases. This vaccine internationalisation is at the core of the Government of India’s Maitri initiative, under which we have so far supplied 60.5 million doses of vaccine to more than 75 countries, with Bhutan being a top priority for receiving doses of the vaccine right away.”
She went on to say that it had been “India’s pleasure to stand firm by the Royal Government, and as Bhutan prepares to begin its mass vaccination campaign, it is our privilege to wish His Majesty, members of the Royal Family, the citizens of Bhutan, and the Bhutanese government health, healing, and prosperity.”
