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Union Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs Gen V K Singh (retd) informed Rajya Sabha MP Shantaram Naik that the BRICS logo was selected through an open contest launched by the Ministry of External Affairs on the portal www.mygov.in, which is a government of India’s citizen engagement platform.
The BRICS logo during India’s BRICS championship is the national flower of India – lotus. The middle portion of logo depicts the salutation ‘Namaste’, Singh said.
The Minister also said, “The overall logo depicts the national flower of India ‘Lotus’. The perception of the countrymen and the world towards India has changed in the last 1.5 years. As lotus is the symbol of prosperity and India is heading in the same direction; we have designed lotus with the colours signifying BRICS members and their unity”.
In a statement issued separately, Naik said that he had taken strong objection to the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Goa Summit 2016 logo, wherein the BRICS logo was shown as lotus, which is an election symbol of India’s ruling party.
Naik further said that it is highly improper on the part of the relevant BRICS committee, which selected the logo, to select the election symbol of a member country, namely India, when it is well known that it is lotus, and that, elections of the State Assembly of Goa were due to be held in the month of February 2017 along with elections to state assemblies of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Manipur.
Naik said that he has already taken up the matter with the Election Commission.