UK sends 'badhai' to President Droupadi Murmu

London: Britain has sent greetings to India’s new President Droupadi Murmu and expressed confidence that the India-UK relationship would go from ”strength to strength” under her tenure.

Lord Tariq Ahmad, the Minister of State in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) for South Asia and the Commonwealth, took to Twitter on Friday to send his ”badhai” in Devanagari script to the new Indian Head of State. The tweet followed the former governor of Jharkhand’s confirmation as President-elect.

”Congratulations to Droupadi Murmu on her election as India’s new President,” said Lord Ahmad, a Pakistani-origin Conservative Party peer in the House of Lords.

”I am sure the UK-India relationship will go from strength to strength during her tenure. Badhai!” With outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson now technically signed off from the job after his farewell speech in Parliament last week ahead of the election of a new Prime Minister by early September, 10 Downing Street said Lord Ahmad’s tweet from last week is the formal UK government congratulatory message for the new Indian President.

Ahmad is the minister officially in-charge of Indian affairs and sent the message in his capacity as Minister for South Asia.

On Monday, Murmu was sworn in as the 15th President of India and hailed her election as symbolic of the “greatness of India, mother of democracy”. The 64-year-old is the first tribal woman to hold the highest constitutional post in the country.