As India celebrates the New Delhi declaration over a grand G20 banquet hosted by the President of Bharat, the vacant chairs reflect the discord between the government and Congress. Congress chief ministers have skipped the banquet though they don’t want to call it that.
This is because having accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of disrespecting a “tribal President" due to her absence at the inauguration of the new Parliament building, the Congress cannot afford to boycott the banquet. Hence, the party’s CMs are accusing the home ministry of blocking air traffic.
The reason the Congress is angry is because the party’s president who is also the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, has not been given an invitation for the banquet. The Congress has called it petty and small.
But government sources say, former Prime Ministers and chief ministers have been extended an invite. The BJP has also asked why Kharge did not attend the August 15 event at Red Fort despite the fact that he was invited.
MISSED CHANCE OR FAUX PAS?
This brings us to the question – does the Congress commit bloopers during high-profile foreign visits of the PM and events like the G20 summit?
For example, this time Rahul Gandhi is on a three-nation tour to Norway, France, and Belgium. On the first day of the G20 summit, as dignitaries began to pour into Delhi, Rahul Gandhi accused the government of being undemocratic and not doing enough on Manipur. This has invited criticism that he runs down the image of the country abroad when high-profile leaders are in town.
SOCIAL MEDIA STORM
It didn’t just stop at this. Even as the summit meetings are on, Congress’s social media team is viral with attacks on the PM. Some of the posts on social media site X made fun of the fact that silverware was being used during the presidential banquet. One allegedly released a doctored clip of the PM. Some raised the Adani issue, taunting the “One Nation, One Future" slogan of the summit. Another showed the Congress’s past attendance at the previous summits.
While the rest of the opposition parties, especially the INDIA front, have preferred to remain silent or reticent, aware that it could give the BJP a narrative against them, the Congress has walked into a trap. Again.
