Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla assured the Turkish delegation during a G20 Speakers’ Summit (P20) bilateral meeting that India opposed terrorism in all forms, whether caste- or religion-based, and no terrorist activity gets support in the country.
The speaker disclosed this while talking to reporters in Parliament House premises on Sunday, sharing the unprecedented success of the Ninth P20 (13-14 October), attended by 48 speakers and senate chairpersons from 29 countries.
Answering a question regarding Turkish Speaker Kurtulmus’s apprehensions during the bilateral meeting that some Turkish elements in India could try to engineer instability in their mother country, Birla said India condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
Birla said terrorism is a hindrance to peace and development and called for global peace and prosperity. All sources of terror must be defeated with collective determination, he said.
In another bilateral, the Lok Sabha speaker had protested to vice-president of the European Parliament, Nicola Beer, against bringing proposals in the European Parliament on India’s internal issues. When asked a question, Birla insisted that every nation and their parliament is sovereign and their internal issues should not be discussed by others, unless the issues had an international dimension.
The speaker said India’s P20 success was noteworthy as it concluded with a unanimous joint declaration, while the eighth P20 in Indonesia had no joint declaration.
He said delegates expressed concern on artificial intelligence and data security while discussing the subject of digital public infrastructure. The delegates wanted reliable and responsible use of AI and data security. He said that AI should be credible and trustworthy. There could be a need for laws to protect human rights.
The speaker said the P20 countries agreed to form a group to enhance domain knowledge for legislative drafting.
He said that in line with the theme of India’s G20 presidency, the theme of the 9th P20 Summit was “Parliaments for One Earth, One Family, One Future”.
Highlighting the success of the summit, Birla noted that after the consensus on the joint declaration under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the G20 conference, Parliament of India led others to reach a consensus on the joint declaration in the P20 also.
He said that in line with the prime minister’s initiative, the conference agreed to promote women-led development. He said that all the presiding officers welcomed the “Nari Shakti Vandan Bill, 2023” (Women’s Reservation Bill, 2023) passed by the Indian Parliament.
Referring to subjects discussed, he said climate change was agreed to be a major challenge before the world. Birla said that India has taken several initiatives to deal with the threat of climate change.
Regarding the discussion on Mission LiFE initiated by the prime minister, Birla noted that all countries shared information about the innovations being made in their countries.
He said that now there will be a special discussion on Mission LiFE in the parliaments of all countries, and the message will be given to the entire world to adopt an environment-friendly lifestyle.
By doing this, under the leadership of India, people from all over the world will unite to protect the earth, environment, and nature. Similarly, by sharing each other’s best practices and efforts, everyone will be able to move towards a healthy and ideal lifestyle.