Days after Rajghat visit, UN chief says ‘let’s not forget example of Gandhi’

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi during his visit. to Delhi for the G20 Leaders’ Summit, on Wednesday urged that one must not forget the example of Gandhi.

“I came from India and I went to pay tribute to Gandhi. Let’s not forget the example of Gandhi,” Guterres said at his press conference here in response to a question on Palestine.

“I think it’s important to fully recognise the rights of the Palestinian people” and it is important to condemn any attempt to undermine the two-state solution, he said.

“I do not think that it is with violence that the Palestinians will be able to better defend their interests. That is my humble opinion,” he added.

Guterres travelled to Delhi to attend the G20 Leaders’ Summit held under the Indian presidency on September 9 and 10 in the national capital.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted leaders of the world’s biggest economies, including US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov among others, for the G20 Leaders’ Summit.

On the second day of the summit, the G20 leaders, including Biden, Sunak and Guterres, went to Gandhi’s memorial at Rajghat and paid tributes to the revered Indian leader.

In response to a question by a Pakistani journalist on whether Guterres raised the issue of alleged violence against minorities in India with the Indian leadership during his visit to Delhi, Guterres said he did not have any bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Modi during the summit. “But our position has been very clear. Religious intolerance is a violation of human rights that is totally unacceptable,” he added.