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Outgoing Indian Ambassador to the United States, Ronen Sen has no desire to be appointed India's President, but is looking forward to returning to India and regaining his place as a proud citizen of the country.
Sen was evidently overcome with emotion by the tributes and accolades paid to him at a farewell reception on Sunday by a coalition of Indian American associations of the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
Responding to community leaders calls that he continue in political life after his retain and hopes that the next government in India would appoint him the President of India, Sen said, "Thank you everyone for your very, very warm words -- I am really overwhelmed."
"And, it is very difficult for me in a sense to, you know, after so much talk about so many accomplishments and by repetition, there is a real danger that I might actually believe it," he joked. "But, one thing which my wife does is, she gives me a sense of perspective --and that is how we maintain our sanity."
"In a way, when good friend Sunny Wycliffe (former national president of the Federal of Kerala Associations of North America) said something about a very high post, I can tell you one thing, which I am looking forward to -- both of us (him and his wife Kalpana Sen, who was also present at the farewell) looking forward to it very much myself, is to regaining my post and very proudly as a citizen of India," Sen added.
"So, I will be a free citizen of India very soon, and that is mixed with a great deal of pride that I will assume that position again."
Sunny Wycliffe, who was among the several community leaders who lined up to pay tribute to Sen and speak of his achievements, said he wished Sen would not retire but remain active in politics, "and I very much hope the next administration will appoint you as the next President of India."
Wycliffe said, this was not just an idle wish by him and recalled that he had wished the same thing for the late Indian Ambassador K R Narayanan at a farewell to him by the community nearly three decades ago, and Narayanan had gone into politics on his return to India and ended up as vice president and then as President of India.
Sen, in his remarks, also said that the nuclear deal would have never become a reality if not for the support of the Indian American community that lobbied for its approval in the US Congress in an unprecedented united manner.
He said, "If you remain united in a common purpose, there is nothing which cannot be done, and that is what pleases me. That this is the first time, I find that all the major organizations have got together in one place and are having this event."
"So, this gives me only personal joy, but it gives me hope for the future," he said.
Sen asserted that "our strength is really is you are united -- a united group or organization or body -- is much more powerful than the sum total of the individuals and this historically has been our weakness."
He said that "if you could go right through the ages and the millennia, whenever we have been divided, we have been taken advantage of. Whenever, we have been united, we have risen to great heights and this is basically the story of India."