'Millets Only' lunch in Parliament: Vice President Dhankar, PM Modi, Cong chief Kharge break bread

New Delhi, December 20

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and top opposition leaders broke bread at a “Millets Only” lunch Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar hosted in the Parliament House Complex on Tuesday.

Parliament laws were all decked up to welcome MPs with leaders across party lines participating in the special luncheon.

“As we prepare to mark 2023 as the International Year of Millets, attended a sumptuous lunch in Parliament where millet dishes were served. Good to see participation from across party lines,” PM Modi tweeted.

Also on display around the lunch venue were a range of millet products.

The lunch saw a serving of millet preparations from different parts of the country — Rajasthan’s Bajra/Sorghum; Karnataka’s Jowar/Ragi; Maharashtra’s Ragi/Jowar; Uttar Pradesh’s and Haryana’s Bajra.

Millets are a collective group of small seeded annual grasses that are grown as grain crops, primarily on marginal land in dry areas of temperate, subtropical and tropical regions. The Government of India had proposed to the United Nations for declaring 2023 as International Year of Millets (IYOM).

The proposal of India was supported by 72 countries and the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets on 5th March, 2021.Now, the Government of India is celebrating IYOM, 2023 to make it a peoples’ movement so that the Indian millets, recipes, value added products are accepted globally.

Tomar’s lunch was part of the celebration, with expectation that all MPs will go back and promote millets in their respective segments.