G20 presidency: BJP says country moving forward under Modi's leadership

As India takes over the G20 presidency, the BJP said the country is moving forward with a positive attitude under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi irrespective of the mudslinging

As India takes over the G20 presidency, the BJP on Thursday said the country is moving forward with a positive attitude under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi irrespective of the mudslinging by those who do not want to see it progress.

Referring to the Congress, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said at a press conference that the more these "negative" people try to damage its reputation, the stronger India will become.

"All newspapers carried the prime minister's articles which underlined that India is the mother of democracy. It's a great honour for us that India is making rapid progress on the world map," he said.

The prime minister has categorically stated this is not an era of war. Recently, during the G20 summit in Indonesia, this mantra was adopted by all the participating countries, Bhatia said.

India on Thursday assumed the Presidency of the G20 with Modi making a strong pitch for a fundamental mindset shift to benefit humanity as a whole and saying the country will work to further promote "oneness".

Listing terror, climate change, and pandemics as the "greatest challenges" that can be best fought together, Modi also said "our era need not be one of war", remarks that echoed his message in September to Russian President Vladimir Putin amid the Ukraine conflict that "today's era is not of war".

India's G20 agenda will be inclusive, ambitious, action-oriented, and decisive, the prime minister said, as he urged G20 countries to work together to shape a new paradigm of "human-centric globalisation" and make India's G20 Presidency a "Presidency of healing, harmony and hope".

Besides India, the G20 comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the European Union (EU).

Collectively, the G20 accounts for 85 per cent of the global GDP, 75 per cent of the international trade, and two-thirds of the world population.

India will host the next G20 summit in New Delhi in September 2023.