Several Opposition parties on Monday sought to drive home the fact that G20 presidency was rotational and not the first time India had hosted an international conference of this scale, amid efforts by the ruling ecosystem to showcase it as a big achievement of the Modi government.

This fact-check was provided to the government in person by Opposition leaders during the all-party meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to brief the country’s political class about the presidency and the meetings that have been scheduled in the run-up to the summit next September.

Since many of these meetings will be held in states — as is the first Sherpa meeting of India’s presidency currently on in Udaipur — the Prime Minister sought the support of all state governments in ensuring their smooth conduct and success.

In his intervention, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge referred to the NonAligned Movement Summit held in New Delhi in 1983 in which over 100 countries participated and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting a year later which saw participation from 40 countries.

He reminded the government about the “guidance” former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave the world during the 2008 financial crisis and quoted what then US President Barack Obama had said about him on the sidelines of the 2010 G20 meeting: “Whenever the Indian Prime Minister speaks, the whole world listens to him.’’

Referring to the debt trap that several countries are dealing with, Kharge hoped that India would be able to use its G20 presidency to steer them out of the crisis. Also, India should use this opportunity to push back on China’s border incursions, he said.

Picking on the “Vasudeva Kutumbakam” (One-EarthOne-Family-One-Future) theme that the government has chosen for the India edition of the G20, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said: “This does not mean imposing a uniformity but is the recognition of a global family where social pluralities are celebrated by treating all diversities on the basis of equality and dignity. Such a global family is premised on such societies established domestically in every country… The current alarming levels of communal polarisation based on vicious campaigns of hate, terror and violence destroy the foundations of the declaration announced by the PM.’’

Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and CPI general secretary D. Raja also stressed the need to keep the G20 above party politics. The country’s agenda should be promoted, they said. Ahead of the meeting, Banerjee had questioned the use of the lotus for the G20 symbol since it was also a party symbol besides being the national flower.

Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister inaugurated the BJP office-bearers’ meeting and played up India’s presidency of the G-20, terming it a matter of pride.