Modi gifts artefacts from poll-bound Karnataka to his Japanese counterpart Kishida

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday presented to his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida a sandalwood statue of Lord Buddha made by the craftsmen of Karnataka, keeping up his personal practice of gifting his foreign counterparts artefacts from poll-bound states.

Kishida arrived in New Delhi early on Monday. He had a meeting with Modi at Hyderabad House in the national capital later on the day.

The prime minister gifted his guest from Tokyo a Kadamwood Jali box, containing a sandalwood statue of Lord Buddha in the ‘Dhyana Mudra’ (or meditative posture) under the Bodhi Tree.

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The statue and the box were hand-crafted by the artisans of Karnataka, where a new legislative assembly might be elected by the middle of May.

This is not the first time the prime minister gifted artefacts from poll-bound states to foreign leaders.

He gifted a stole from Meghalaya and a shawl from Nagaland to the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who visited New Delhi just a few days before the two northeastern states went to polls on February 27.

The prime minister had earlier gifted traditional artefacts from Gujarat to the foreign leaders he had met on the sideline of the G-20 summit at Bali in Indonesia on November 15 and 16 last year. The state went to polls on December 1 and 5.

Modi had gifted the United Kingdom’s new Hindu Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, a “Mata Ni Pachedi”, a handmade sacred textile wall piece made in Gujarat. A Patan Patola Dupatta – a scarf woven by the Salvis of Patan in northern Gujarat – had been his gift for Giorgia Meloni, his counterpart in Italy. He had given Agate Bowls from Khambhat in Gujarat to French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during his meetings with them in Bali.

The prime minister had also gifted some of the foreign leaders he had met in Bali artefacts from Himachal Pradesh, where polling for the state assembly elections had been held on November 12.

The leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Karnataka on Saturday took to Twitter to laud the prime minister’s gesture of gifting artefacts from the state to his counterpart from Japan. “Thanks to PM @narendramodi ji for spreading the fragrance of Karnataka sandalwood over India-Japan bilateral relations,” tweeted Pralhad Joshi, union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs. “Modi ji has gifted a Buddha Statue made from Karnataka sandalwood to Japanese PM Fumio Kishida. The 2 nations will bloom with the soft scent of sandalwood.”

“Namma Karnataka's timeless artistry. Exquisite sandalwood carvings from Karnataka feature in PM Sri @narendramodi Ji's gift to Japanese PM Fumio Kishida. The sandalwood Buddha statue is a cultural marvel and a sign of goodwill,” tweeted Shobha Karandlaje, union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.