India has assumed the prestigious G20 presidency and will, later this year, convene the G20 Leaders’ Summit. While the G20 presidency is a watershed moment in India’s history, the history of G20 too will script a new chapter by moving away from a “protocol-driven G20” to a “People’s G20”.
One of the key facets of the Modi government in the last eight years has been people’s participation, people-centric governance, people-oriented policies and people-led development — a model that traverses from jan bhagidari to jan kalyan.
From 45 crore Jan Dhan accounts to 11 crore Swachh Bharat toilets, from 220 crore Covid vaccination doses under the largest free vaccination drive to housing for the poor under PM Awas Yojana, from over 9 crore Ujjwala gas connections to affordable healthcare for all under Ayushman Bharat covering 50 crore Indians — jan hit and jan kalyan, or people’s welfare, has been the guiding philosophy, with jan bhagidari being the key component of PM Modi’s governance style.
Even something like the Padma Awards has been recast as the “People’s Padma Awards” by making the process more participatory and transparent, recognising genuine grassroots leaders rather than those with proximity to power corridors. And therefore it would be entirely appropriate to use this jan bhagidari-jan hit template to analyse how the G20 presidency of India would play itself out, both in its conduct and impact.
In the coming months, India will host over 200 meetings in 56 locations across the length and breadth of the country. No previous host of the G20 can boast of such an elaborate list of locations for meetings as India. Most of them confined the meetings to their capital city or perhaps a few additional locations. India’s decision is not just significant for showcasing the country’s tourism prospects; it truly reflects a decentralised and cooperative federalism approach to broad base the G20 presidency and make every state, and indeed every Indian, feel that he or she is a vital stakeholder in this massive international exercise. It is not only an opportunity for states and cities to showcase their rich and diverse cultural heritage, but also to spruce up its landscape and infrastructural inventory. Making the G20 Delhi-centric would have been logistically easier and would perhaps have allowed the central government an opportunity to claim all the credit in hosting and organising it. But PM Modi stuck to his time-tested template of jan bhagidari. The government has translated the G20 India theme of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” into practical reality by going in for an “all of government” or “Team India” approach.
A quick glance at the agenda India is chalking out for the G20 — green growth, digital transition and sustainable progress (for which this author has coined the acronym GDP) — also reinforces how this could truly be a “People’s G20” under the stewardship of PM Modi. It shows how this forum for international economic cooperation could be transformed into a forum for people-to-people cooperation. After all, at the core of any collective effort there must necessarily be more than mere economic interests — there must be conviction.
India, over the last few years, particularly by using the JAM trinity, has brought about socio-economic transformation of its citizenry by using digital technology and has ushered in a new paradigm when it comes to efficient and transparent delivery. Open-source platforms, including the Covid-19 vaccination registration and UPI, which reached a record 7.82 billion transactions in December 2022, are models that other countries can replicate.
Today, India is exceeding its targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and is quickly adopting green technology. India’s carbon emissions had already reduced by 24 per cent by 2016 as compared to 2005 levels. India is now setting new targets for itself — to achieve 50 per cent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2070, among others. Prime Minister Modi’s call for action against climate change, referred to as LiFE — lifestyle for the environment movement — has the potential to reverberate globally. What better platform than the G20 to articulate this into policy and citizen action?
In a climate of economic uncertainty, driven by the impact of the Covid pandemic and exacerbated by the Ukraine-Russia conflict, high inflation, rising debt burden, rising food and energy prices are causing major social and political upheavals, particularly amongst low-income nations. India’s G20 presidency offers a ray of hope by not just articulating the voice of the “Global South” but by providing leadership, a clear roadmap and financial resources to bring the world back on a definitive path to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs). India’s own domestic experience in lifting a huge mass of people out of poverty and food insecurity adds credible experience to its global efforts in this direction.
By putting people at the front and centre of its G20 efforts, India’s presidency may well turn out to be the “Setu of Solidarity” that can bridge an increasingly fragmented world and steer it towards “One Earth, One Family and One Future”.
The writer is the national spokesperson, BJP.
