G-20 presidency an opportunity to showcase “Indianness and culture”: PM Modi

PM tells BJP leaders to maintain direct connect with border villagers and that they should be developed as places that draw visitors

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives for the party’s National Office Bearers Meeting, at BJP HQ in New Delhi, on December 5, 2022. | Photo Credit: PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said India’s presidency of the G-20 was a “matter of pride for all” and an occasion to establish globally Indianness and its culture.

Mr. Modi was addressing the two-day huddle of the BJP’s national office-bearers, State unit presidents and general secretaries (organisations).

G-20 or Group of 20 is a forum of the major developed and developing economies in the world.

The Prime Minister also lauded the Kashi-Tamil Sangamam programme that was on in his parliamentary constituency of Varanasi and held it as a model for the sneh milans, or cultural and other exchanges, that he had first mooted during the national executive of the party held in Hyderabad earlier this year.

BJP vice-president and former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh briefed reporters after Mr. Modi’s speech.

The Prime Minister also asked BJP members to maintain direct connect with border villagers and said they should be developed as places that draw visitors. He urged elected representatives of the BJP and party leaders to do night-stay programmes in border villages as a way of not only keeping in touch but also addressing issues in these villages.

According to Mr. Singh, Mr. Modi said that there was “an acknowledgement worldwide of the country’s emergence as an economic power amid global challenges like the Ukraine war and the pandemic”.

The two-day meeting of all senior leaders in the party organisation, immediately after the conclusion of polling in the Gujarat Assembly election, has been called for a large-scale stock-taking exercise and to gird up for the electoral challenges next year, beginning with the Karnataka Assembly election, followed by those in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and the big challenge of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Mr. Singh said the meeting will discuss various topical issues and also the upcoming State elections. Party leaders are deliberating upon further strengthening the BJP’s presence at booths.

Sources told The Hindu that the stock-taking was also a precursor to J.P. Nadda getting an extension as BJP president (party presidents usually have a three-year tenure and any extension has to be approved of by the parliamentary board and the national executive).

“This also means that the one-year extension will expire in January 2024, by which time, the General Election will be imminent and there would be no point in going through elaborate organisational polls. All this will result in Mr. Nadda being party president for the 2024 election and therefore there will be some changes in the party organisation as well, after this meeting,” a source said.