Mamata's Ma, Maati, Manush slogan echoes at UN

Trinamool Congress slogan 'Ma, Maati, Maanush' was raised by party MP Derek O'Brien at the UN general Assembly in New York.

O'Brien raised the poll-winning slogan coined by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee while speaking at the second committee session of the General Assembly on Monday.

"In Bengal, the region of India I come from, we call this humanistic philosophy of 'Ma, Maati and Manush' signifying an equilibrium of the universally caring Mother, the earth, that nurtures us and human beings who must be central to our developmental endeavours," he told delegates while speaking on why poverty eradication should be the focus of UN's operational activities for development.

The copy of his statement was made available in Kolkata on Tuesday.

The UN development system to be successful globally needs to be firmly rooted in its core focus area, which has primarily to be only development-related, he said.

"Poverty eradication still remains the overriding priority for developing countries and the greatest global challenge. It is therefore our considered conviction that poverty eradication should be at the heart of UN's operational activities for development, as its primary objective."

Developing countries have their own set of needs and different context-based requirements, which the UN development system must find ways to respond to, he added.

O'Brien, known also as a quiz master, was part of a group of visiting MPs from India.