'Historically, there was reluctance to think beyond Delhi...': PM Modi on democratising G20 Presidency

With G-20 events being held across the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an exclusive interview to Moneycontrol.com, said that historically there was a certain reluctance to think beyond Delhi for hosting national and international meets.

The Prime Minister was responding to a question on the democratisation of G-20, which is being held in India this year. Events have been held in multiple cities across the country, such as Kashmir, a departure from an earlier tradition of holding such events in one or two major cities of the country.

“Historically, in the circles of power, there was a certain reluctance to think beyond Delhi, particularly Vigyan Bhavan, for hosting national and international meets. This may have been due to convenience or lack of confidence in the people,” said the PM.

Observing how even the visits of foreign leaders would be restricted to mainly the national capital or a couple of other places, PM Modi emphasised that he developed a different perspective, seeing the capabilities of the people and the wonderful diversity of India, and his government worked on changing the approach since day one.

“I have hosted several engagements with global leaders around the country. Let me quote a few examples. The then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel was hosted in Bengaluru. French President Emmanuel Macron and the then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Varanasi. Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was hosted in Goa and Mumbai. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited Shantiniketan. The then-French President Francois Hollande visited Chandigarh,” said Prime Minister Modi.

He said many global meets have also been held in different places outside Delhi.

“The Global Entrepreneurship Summit was held in Hyderabad. India hosted the BRICS Summit in Goa and the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Corporation Summit in Jaipur. I can go on quoting examples, but the pattern that you can observe here is that this is a great change from the prevailing approach,” said the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister said that the another point to note here is that many of these meets were held in states run by non-NDA governments at the time.

“This is also a testament to our firm belief in cooperative federalism and bipartisanship when it comes to national interest. This is the same spirit that you can see in our G20 Presidency too,” the Prime Minister added.

By the end of our G20 Presidency, he said there will have been over 220 meetings in 60 cities across all 28 states and 8 union territories.

“More than 1 lakh participants from approximately 125 nationalities will have visited India. Over 1.5 crore individuals in our country have been involved in these programmes or have been exposed to various aspects of them. Holding meetings of such scale and hosting foreign delegates is an endeavour that calls for great capacity building in terms of infrastructure, logistics, communication skills, hospitality and cultural activities, among others,” he added.

“Our democratisation of the G20 Presidency is our investment in the capacity building of the people, especially youth, of various cities across the country. Further, this is yet another example of our motto of Jan Bhagidari – we believe people’s participation is the most important factor in the success of any initiative,” said the PM.