As India was handed over the G-20 presidency after the two-day summit at Indonesia’s Bali, the Congress on Wednesday alleged that the grouping’s summit next year in New Delhi will be “milked by the world’s greatest event manager” for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
While welcoming the G-20 summit, Congress’ communication chief Jairam Ramesh tweeted, “G20, a grouping of 19 major economies & the European Union was set up in 1999. Since 2008 an annual summit is held in each member country IN TURN. Each country gets a chance & India will host the summit in 2023. It’s certainly to be welcomed like similar summits held earlier”.
“The Non Aligned Summit of over 100 countries took place in New Delhi in 1983 followed by the Commonwealth Summit. The 2023 Summit will of course be milked by the world’s greatest event manager for the Lok Sabha elections a year later to distract from real issues of the people,” Mr. Ramesh added in an apparent reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
India will officially assume the G-20 presidency from December 1 and the G-20 Leaders’ Summit at the level of heads of state/government is scheduled to be held on September 9 and 10 in New Delhi.
Address to diaspora
Mr. Ramesh also slammed the Prime Minister for ‘carrying’ domestic politics abroad a day after Mr. Modi addressed the Indian diaspora in Indonesia in which he said there was a “huge difference” between pre-2014 and post-2014 India and asserted that the country was now moving ahead at an “unprecedented speed and scale”.
“It’s long been a tradition that our PMs do not carry their domestic politics, prejudices & partisanship to Indian audiences abroad. This healthy convention was broken after May 2014, the latest example being in Indonesia where FekuMaster once again showed his self-obsession,” tweeted Mr. Ramesh.
