‘Tulsi-bhai’: WHO chief Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus will get a Gujarati title from PM Narendra Modi

By PTI

GANDHINAGAR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday gave a brand new title — ‘Tulsi-bhai’ — to Director-General of the World Health Organization Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus at his request. Dr Ghebreyesus reacted with fun when Modi gave him a Gujarati title throughout a summit right here.

The Tulsi plant (‘holy basil’ or Ocimum tenuiflorum) has been an integral a part of India’s religious heritage, the prime minister mentioned, talking on the inaugural ceremony of the three-day Global Ayush Investment and Innovation Summit.

Dr Ghebreyesus, who shared the dais with Modi, had tried to start out his speech in Gujarati. Modi mentioned Dr Ghebreyesus wished a Gujarati title.

“When he met me today morning, he said he has become a ‘pucca’ Gujarati. He asked me to give him a Gujarati name. He reminded me on the stage, whether I had decided on a name for him. In this pious land of Mahatma Gandhi, as a Gujarati, I would call my best friend (‘param mitra’) ‘Tulsibhai’,” the prime minister mentioned.

“Director General of WHO Dr Tedros has been a very good friend (‘achhe mitra) of mine. Whenever we meet, he would always say one thing, ‘whatever I am today Modi ji, is because of Indian teachers who taught me since childhood’. Indian teachers have played a very big role at important junctures in my life, and I am proud to be associated with India,” Modi quoted Dr Ghebreyesus as stating.

Modi mentioned that the holy basil is historically planted in each family in India and prayers are supplied to it technology after technology. “Tulsi is a plant which is an integral part of India’s spiritual heritage,” the prime minister mentioned, noting that there’s additionally Tulsi Vivah pageant across the time of Diwali. The ‘bhai’ suffix, he mentioned, is a should for a Gujarati,” he mentioned.

He was particularly blissful calling Dr Ghebreyesus ‘Tulsibhai,’ and delighted by the latter’s affection for Gujarat, his try to talk in Gujarati and his affection for the Indian academics who taught him in childhood, Modi added.

Notably, whereas Modi and Dr Ghebreyesus shared bonhomie on stage, the Indian authorities final week took objection to the WHO’s methodology for estimating COVID-19 mortality within the nation, saying that its mathematical modelling was unsuitable for an unlimited nation like India.