NEW DELHI: Political leaders attending the G20 summit in New Delhi paid a visit on Sunday to the memorial dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, one of the leaders of India’s struggle to liberate itself from colonial rule.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi placed shawls around the necks of the heads of state and government as they arrived at the Raj Ghat memorial in Delhi at the start of the second and last day of the summit.
Wreaths were then laid during a ceremony at the site, where Gandhi was cremated shortly after his murder in 1948, said German news agency (dpa).
US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other world leaders paused for a moment of silence.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is representing the Kremlin in the absence of President Vladimir Putin, also attended the event.
This is in contrast to last year’s G20 summit in Indonesia, which was also overshadowed by Russia’s war against Ukraine, which the Kremlin started in February 2022.
Lavrov left last year’s meeting early.
The visit to the memorial was the only G20 event away from the conference centre in which the leaders appeared together in front of news cameras. However like last year, the so-called family photo, previously a fixture at these events, was not taken.
Gandhi, who led a campaign of peaceful resistance to British rule culminating in independence in 1947, is honoured as the father of the Indian nation.
He was murdered by a radical Hindu nationalist who did not share his vision of peaceful coexistence between the Hindu majority and India’s many minorities, in particular the Muslims. Hindu nationalism has come to the forefront under Modi’s premiership.-Bernama
