Amid a row over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's remarks in the United Kingdom, the leader spoke at length at a consultative committee meeting on India's G-20 Presidency chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, reportedly clarifying his remarks.
He said that he only raised questions about India's democracy and told the leaders present that he believes this is an internal matter and they will solve it, and did not ask any other country to intervene.
External Affairs Minister Jaishankar was giving a detailed presentation on the G20 presidency to the committee members, including Rahul Gandhi, when a BJP MP raised the UK speech issue, stating that some political leaders are trying to score brownie points by talking about Indian democracy on foreign land.
In response, Rahul Gandhi said that his speech and criticism were not against the government. He further said that he did not speak in a manner that the BJP claimed he did and hence cannot be called an "anti-national."
According to a report by India Today, remarks by Rahul Gandhi were countered by BJP MPs, who said that this was not the appropriate platform to speak on this topic, leading to a heated argument between the former Congress MP and the BJP MPs.
EAM Jaishankar interrupted him and said that the subject of the meeting should be discussed and not only political topics, as many MPs present claimed that people are trying to divert attention from India's chairmanship of the G20.
The meeting was also attended by opposition MPs including Rahul Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor and Priyanka Chaturvedi among others.
"A good meeting of the ConsultativeCommittee on ExternalAffairs today on India’s foreign policy objectives in the G-20 was somewhat marred by some members needlessly politicising the discussion. @RahulGandhi robustly responded to them & it ended with an amicable group photograph," Shashi Tharoor tweeted.
Gandhi's recent comments at the Cambridge University that Indian democracy is under attack and several politicians, including himself, are under surveillance, invited sharp reactions from the BJP which accused him of maligning the country's image on foreign soil after facing successive electoral setbacks.
(With inputs from PTI)
