England’s Prince Charles is the latest to adopt an Indian greeting style Namaste to greet and meet people at the Buckingham Palace.
He greeted Baroness Floella Benjamin with a Namaste bow to avoid handshake with her as a precaution to coronavirus.
Namaste 🙏🏻 🙏🏻
See we Indians told to do this to world many many years ago. Now just a class on ‘how to do namaste properly’. #CoronaVirus pic.twitter.com/P1bToirPin
— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) March 12, 2020
As people are advised to avoid handshakes, Prince Charles has adopted an Indian style to meet and greet people. He was spotted adopting the same style of greeting when he arrived at London Palladium in his car.
A 12-second video showed Prince Charles stepping out of his car and offering his hand for a shake, then suddenly recalls the precautions and greets people with Namaste.
Forget handshakes, time to Namaste: #Trump & Prince #Charles latest to embrace Indian greeting in #Covid era (VIDEOS)https://t.co/CDtWevEwf0 pic.twitter.com/Gpy1xnFiAT
— RT (@RT_com) March 13, 2020
Similarly, US President Donald Trump and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar greeted each other with Namaste at the White House on Thursday, saying that it is necessary for the current time of pandemic coronavirus.
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“We did not shake hands today. We looked at each other and said what we are going to do. You know, sort of a weird feeling,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office of the White House along with Mr. Varadkar.
When another reporter asked if they shook hands, Mr. Varadkar joined his hands in the Namaste pose to tell the reporters how he greeted President Trump.
President Trump also joined him to show the press the ‘Namaste pose’. “I just got back from India. And I did not shake any hands there. And it’s very easy because they go like this,” Trump showed the reporters.
'Namaste' a day keeps #coronavirus at bay?
MORE: https://t.co/CDtWevEwf0 pic.twitter.com/H4UcGgnsnx
— RT (@RT_com) March 13, 2020
Trump also showed the Japanese style of greeting- the bowing of the head. “They (India and Japan) were ahead of the curve,” he remarked.
“I have never been a big hand-shaker, you probably heard. But once you become a politician, shaking hands is very normal. It’s a very strange feeling when people walk up and say “hi”,” President Trump added.
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Lately, videos from across the world have been circulating on social media showing world leaders evading handshakes with people.