Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Saturday in a bilateral meeting with the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Nicola Beer, protested for raising India’s internal issues in EU’s Parliament.
“He insisted that every nation and Parliament is sovereign and their internal issues should not be discussed by others,” a statement from the Lok Sabha Secretariat said.
Though the statement didn’t make any reference to any particular internal issue, sources told The Hindu that Mr. Birla’s reference was to the July resolution of the EU Parliament that discussed the violence between Meitis and Kukis in Manipur. Then, India had said that the move by the EU Parliament reflected a “colonial mindset”.
Interestingly, during his valedictory address to the Parliamentary Speakers Summit (P-20) of G-20 countries, Mr. Birla had said that no issue can be seen in isolation in an interconnected world as several leaders talked about the West Asia conflict and other geo-political issues.
“Many members mentioned the situation in West Asia, while some others talked about strengthening multilateralism, the need to encourage international trade and the need for resilient supply chains. I have noted these references carefully. In today’s inter-connected world, we cannot look at any issue in isolation,” Mr. Birla said in his closing statement.
The Lok Sabha Speaker pointed out that paragraph 27 of the Joint Statement talked about pursuing parliamentary diplomacy for international peace.
“We will continue to engage in parliamentary diplomacy and dialogue in relevant fora as a catalyst for promoting international peace, prosperity and harmony, including supporting the peaceful resolution of conflicts and disputes,” read the Joint Statement that was adopted on Friday.
Presidency handed over
Stating that the adoption of the Joint Statement has strengthened the P-20 process, Mr. Birla handed over the P-20 presidency to the President of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Cesar Pereira de Lira, as Brazil will hold the G-20 presidency next year.
Apart from the EU, Mr. Birla also held bilaterals with the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union as well as the presiding officers of Russia, Singapore, Turkey, the Netherlands, South Africa and Mexico.
Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar hosted the delegates of the P-20 Summit that successfully concluded here on Saturday.
The two-day-long P-20 Summit was inaugurated on Friday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who mentioned the world grappling with conflict and confrontation and stressed the need to move through peace and brotherhood.
