Limit Petty Politics To Elections

Monday can prove to be an important day for India as it will see presidents of 40 political parties come together to meet, discuss and finalise strategies for the G-20 whose presidency India has just taken.

It is an intergovernmental forum of the world's major developed and developing economies. It comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the European Union. This meeting has been convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who wants to elicit the views of all parties as part of inclusive participation as the government proposes to host about 200 meetings across the country including Hyderabad beginning from December, one year ahead of the next Summit of the G20 leaders, which is scheduled to be held in New Delhi on September 9 and 10, 2023.

Assuming the presidency of G20 does not give any special rights to India. It has its own challenges. During the one year tenure of its presidency, India will have to find a solution to the global fuel crisis due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War. Another major challenge is to work towards building a consensus and find solutions to problems being faced by global economy, massive debt crisis which could have serious impact on about 70 nations. Another challenge is to address the increase in poverty across the globe following the Covid-19 pandemic and challenges faced by climate crisis.

Another agenda during India's G20 presidency will be building consensus for reforms in global financial institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in order to fulfil the needs and aspirations of developing economies and to find solutions to the fuel crisis due to ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

India may also try to arrive at a consensus and steer the G20 towards providing adequate finance to the Global South. Hence the Monday meeting assumes great importance. Generally, in any country, when such international or national issues arise, all political parties come together and work in unison though otherwise they may be tearing into one another in the political game.

It now remains to be seen whether the leaders of political parties will tell the nation that they are one on many issues and like India's culture, their political fight is another example of unity in diversity or not. West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee who is a bitter enemy of BJP and biggest critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to attend the meeting. She would be participating in the meeting in the capacity of Trinamool Congress chairperson, and not as West Bengal Chief Minister.

Similarly, two arch-rivals Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and leader of opposition N Chandrababu Naidu will also share their views during the meeting. But the TRS president K Chandrashekar Rao is unlikely to participate in the meeting. It might have been good if he, too, like Mamata participated in the meeting in his capacity as TRS president which is now in the process of converting itself into a national party and wants to play major role in shaping the future of India. Petty politics should be confined to elections.

Whether one likes Modi personally or not, participation in such meetings helps in sending a message that projects their broad perspective and outlook on national and international affairs. His participation in Monday's meeting would have projected him as a statesman, more so because since one of the G20 meetings is to be held in Hyderabad sometime next year.