India to ratify Paris climate deal on October 2

KOZHIKODE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Centre will ratify the Paris climate deal on October 2. “The way we are exploiting natural resources will only bring doom. If we don’t help in reducing world temperature now it will affect coastal regions like Kerala. I want to declare that India will ratify the resolution of COP21 on Oct. 2. Because Mahatma Gandhi had smallest carbon footprint,” said Mr Modi.

“There is one work left in the CoP21 (Conference of Parties). Ratification is yet to be done and India too is yet to do it. Today on the birth anniversary of Deen Dayal Upadhyay, I announce that India will ratify the decisions on October 2, the birth anniversary of mahatma Gandhi," he said. During the Paris climate meet in December last, more than 190 nations had agreed on setting ambitious goals for capping global warming and funnelling trillions of dollars to poor countries facing climate catastrophe.

The pact will come into force after it is ratified by at least 55 countries that account for 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. In order to appease the Muslim community, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said they have to be empowered. He recalled what Deendayal Upadhyay used to say at a time when nationalism was looked at in a negative light and the question  was how were the minorities treated. Mr Modi said don't think of the Muslims as vote banks or commodities, but to see them as "our own".

He maintained that his government's mission of 'sabka sath, sabka vikas' is not a political slogan but a commitment to ensure welfare of the last man in the society. In his speech, Modi spoke at length about secularism, balanced and inclusive growth and need for electoral reforms while paying tributes to Upadhyay on his 100th birth anniversary. "These days, the definition has been distored. Even nationalism is cursed these days," he said.

While talking about life and contribution of Upadhyay, Modi quoted him as saying, "don't reward nor rebuke Muslims. Empower them. They are not items of vote market nor are they substance of hate. Treat them as your own." He insisted that for BJP nobody is a "pariah". At the conclusion of the two-day BJP conclave, the Prime Minister traced the party's journey from the days of Jan Sangh and asserted that "we never compromised with our ideology". He said if the BJP had compromised with the ideology, it could have attained power long back.

Regarding scores of people who laid down their life in Kerala, Modi quipped that party workers have made great sacrifices. “They are an inspiration. The CPM violence should be taken as a national debate. There should be debate on this every year. While I was having lunch a party worker, a living victim of CPM violence who was hospitalised for more than three months came to meet me,” added Modi who spoke for an hour at the concluding session of the BJP council.