Apparently citing an unspecified ‘emergency,' Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday cancelled her scheduled meeting with the visiting United Kingdom, Prime Minister David Cameron. On Wednesday, her meeting with Myanmar military leader Senior General Than Shwe was also cancelled without explanation.
While most Congress leaders were tight-lipped on these cancellations, party sources were only willing to confirm that Ms. Gandhi was not in the Capital. Asked whether she was in the country or abroad, these sources said they had no further details.
Members of Mr. Cameron's team were unable to meet party general secretary and Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi also, it is learnt. Apparently neither Mr. Gandhi nor his sister Priyanka Vadra is in town.
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Indeed, the Congress president and Mr. Gandhi have not been sighted in Parliament, which opened on Monday, leading to questions being raised on Wednesday by Opposition MPs.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times of London quoted a senior British diplomat as saying that the U.K. government had been given very clear assurances that the Gandhis were ‘unavoidably out of town for a compelling reason' and that they were ‘very sorry to miss the Prime Minister on this visit.' He added that there was “absolutely no question of a snub.”
In the same report, a British official said Ms. Gandhi was dealing with an unspecified ‘emergency.'
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Mr. Cameron met Ms. Gandhi and her son when he visited India in 2006, shortly after taking over as leader of the Conservative Party.