Emmanuel Lenain, the Ambassador of France to India, took to Twitter to share that the French President Emmanuel Macron has decided to greet all his counterparts with “Namaste”. He termed it as a ‘graceful gesture’ that the President retained from his trip to India in 2018, reported by OpIndia.

As the deadly COVID-9 pandemic is spreading across the world, global leaders are taking all the necessary precautionary initiatives including advising their citizens to ditch handshakes and instead endorsing Indian way of greeting “Namaste” to limit the spread of the deadly virus.

Namaste is the customary Indian way of greeting people with a slight bow and hands pressed together, palms touching and fingers pointing upwards, thumbs close to the chest.

Emmanuel Lenain, the Ambassador of France to India, took to Twitter to share that the French President Emmanuel Macron has decided to greet all his counterparts with Indian way of greeting, “Namaste”. He termed it as a ‘graceful gesture’ that the President retained from his trip to India in 2018. Here is the tweet.

Reportedly, the corona virus has claimed 30 lives and affected over 1500 people in France.

French President Macron’s decision to greet people with ‘Namaste’ is on the lines of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had also similarly urged the citizens of his country to adopt ‘Namaste’ as an effective preventive measure of deadly corona virus. He urged the citizens to adopt Indian way of greeting, Namaste and also showed how Indians do Namaste.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also recently urged the citizens of the country to adopt ‘Namaste’ over handshakes amid the corona virus outbreak. 

Following the outbreak of deadly Corona virus, Indian celebrities and other influential stars are urging their fans and social media followers to do the traditional ‘Namaste’ to greet each other.

Bollywood actor Anupam Kher had shared a video of himself to advise his fans to do Namaste instead of handshakes. Kher tweeted, “Of late I am being told by lots of people to keep washing hands to prevent any kind of infection. I do that in any case. But also want to suggest the age-old Indian way of greeting people called Namaste. It is hygienic, friendly & centres your energies. Try it.”

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