Road for India becoming 'Vishwaguru' is through SAARC, not G-20: Mehbooba Mufti

The forthcoming G-20 meeting may be a “good promotion exercise” for the BJP at the international level but holding the SAARC summit and discussing problems in the region would help India in becoming a ‘Vishwaguru’

The forthcoming G-20 meeting may be a "good promotion exercise" for the BJP at the international level but holding the SAARC summit and discussing problems in the region would help India in becoming a 'Vishwaguru', says the last Chief Minister of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state Mehbooba Mufti.

Ms. Mehbooba was speaking to PTI-video on the preparations for the G-20 grouping meeting on tourism in Srinagar from May 22 to 24.

Amid strain in ties India-Pakistan ties, the biennial SAARC summits have not taken place since the 2014 meeting in Kathmandu.

"We don't live close to Australia, America or Japan which are members of G-20. We are living in this region and the SAARC caters to the problems of this region and if the government takes the initiative and has a summit of SAARC countries and addresses the problems that are being faced by this region including what is happening in Pakistan" that will help India to be the leader in the region and the world, she said.

But the government "has to understand that the road leads through SAARC and not through G-20", the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief said.

The G-20 event will be the first international meeting being held in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two union territories — Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh — in August 2019.

"As far as G-20 is concerned, it has been made into a BJP event because even the logo has been replaced by a lotus. It may be a kind of good promotion for the party itself and as far as Jammu and Kashmir is concerned, especially the Valley you have seen the way the crackdowns are going on...," she said.