G20 leaders, following Modi’s lead, walked barefoot to honor Mahatma Gandhi at a marble plinth. However, the relationship between Modi’s Hindu nationalist party and this revered figure remains complex and ambivalent.
World leaders walked barefoot through puddles Sunday to pay their respects to revered Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi after monsoon downpours dampened Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s set-piece G20 program.
Modi welcomed his guests to the site where the apostle of non-violence was cremated in January 1948, the day after he was gunned down by a Hindu nationalist ideologue.
Many guests, including British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron, joined Modi in shedding their socks and shoes on the walk to the marble plinth where an eternal flame commemorates Gandhi’s memory.
After a rendition of a Hindu devotional hymn, they stood for a moment’s silence before leaving wreaths to honor the peace icon. Modi has regularly paid respect to Gandhi and spoken movingly about his ideals and legacy.
But the relationship between Modi’s Hindu nationalist ruling party and one of the 20th century’s most venerated figures remains deeply ambivalent.
Modi has never explicitly denounced Godse or his ideology, and his government has championed the work of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, an important Hindu ideologue who served as Godse’s mentor.
The prime minister has a heavy personal investment in the success of this year’s G20 summit, which he has used to burnish his image as an international statesman ahead of national elections next year.
Katrine Dige Houmøller, with AFP
