What unites Russia’s Kursk and India? There are a thousand Indian students who receive higher education in Kursk. Agricultural products, the supply of which from the Kursk region going to India in 2024 increased 12.4 times compared to 2023. But there is also a Kursk City Assembly Deputy Abhay Kumar Singh, a true son of Kursk, but with deep Indian roots.
His story is a living example of the closeness of Russian-Indian ties. The future Russian was born in the city of Patna, in the north-eastern part of India. After coming to our country in 1991, Abhay learned Russian and graduated from the Kursk State Medical Institute, specializing as a general physician. Here he also met his future wife, a Kurskian woman. The couple had a daughter, who followed in her father’s footsteps and today works in a Moscow hospital. Since 2010, Mr. Singh has been a full citizen of the Russian Federation. In 2017, the “Russian Indian” was elected deputy of the Kursk City Assembly, and in 2022, the “Indian Russian” was re-elected again by the residents of Kursk.
“I am the only Indian in Russian politics,” Abhay Singh proudly tells me. And there is indeed something to be proud of: India’s huge population is close to 1.5 billion people, and there is only one Russian Indian MP in the world. Is this not a good reason for a Guinness Book record?” Singh said with a touch of humility.
These days, the Kurskian-Indian is on business trips to his historic homeland. As part of them, Russian “MP” Singh has already met with the speaker of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament.
“After so many years of living in Russia, I think in Russian, but I have not forgotten Hindi. True, in conversation I often confuse my native language with Russian words” Abhay admits with a smile.
Albeit regional, but truly international parliamentary diplomacy is bearing fruit. During the recent talks between the Kursk MP and the Speaker of the Indian Legislative Assembly Om Birla in New Delhi, they discussed mutual exchanges of parliamentary visits between the two countries.
“We expressed mutual interest in strengthening inter-parliamentary ties and developing comprehensive cooperation. Special attention was paid to the prospects of expanding economic cooperation, particularly in the fields of energy, high technology and infrastructure,” Abhay Singh declared.
He has no doubt that the goal set by the leaders of Russia and India to bring the bilateral trade turnover to the level of 100 billion dollars will be achieved, and new mutually beneficial agreements await our two wonderful countries.
And to the question about Delhi’s position in the current difficult geopolitical situation, he answered as follows:
“Although India has not openly supported Russia, it is close to us. This is because in densely populated India even “uneducated people know that Russia is a friendly country” said Singh.
We wish Mr. Signh many more happy years of public service in Kursk.