‘Insecure’ govt asking foreign leaders not to meet opposition leader: Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said that the visiting foreign dignitaries are being discouraged from meeting him, a practice he described as a mark of the government’s “insecurity”.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Rahul Gandhi speaking to reporters in the Parliament complex, said successive governments, from the Vajpayee era to the Manmohan Singh years, had upheld the norm of ensuring that the Leader of Opposition met foreign leaders. He said this convention is being quietly abandoned.
“The government does not represent India alone. Meetings with the opposition leader offer an alternative viewpoint and reflect the democratic character of the country. But during my visits abroad as well as when high-level delegations travel to India, subtle signals are sent that the opposition leader should be kept off their schedule,” he remarked.
Rahul Gandhi argued that the reluctance to facilitate these interactions stemmed from the ruling dispensation’s own sense of vulnerability. Without naming the Russian President, he said the pattern was consistent irrespective of who was visiting the country.
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that it was “deeply unusual” and ran counter to the long-standing norms. She said the established protocol required foreign dignitaries to meet the Leader of the Opposition, but the current dispensation “seemed intent on stifling every alternative voice.”
“I cannot understand what drives such fear and insecurity,” she said, stressing that a democracy depends on space for every viewpoint and the move was a sign of the government’s own unease, which was putting the health of democracy at risk.
Putin is in India for a summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
