After accidentally revealing about his secret meetings with Chinese officials during a visit to Kailash Mansarovar in September last year, Congress President Rahul has now decided to host ambassadors and high commissioners for a lunch meeting, reports Indian Express.
According to the reports, Congress President Rahul Gandhi is expected to meet foreign envoys stationed in Delhi on February 15. The so-called interaction with the diplomatic corps will be held at Rahul Gandhi’s residence and will be attended by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The proposed meeting between Rahul Gandhi and a few other diplomats of the foreign country will be the first official formal interaction, even though he had hosted envoys of about 40 countries for an Iftar party last year. Reportedly, many from the foreign diplomatic corps intend to meet Gandhi to get an assessment about his “foreign policy approach”.
The Congress president will be meeting with all diplomatic heads of missions, make some brief opening remarks and will be answering a few questions. “It is going to be an interactive session since many are interested in knowing his foreign policy mind,” reported Indian Express.
According to the report, the French government seems to be unhappy over Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s recent statements in connection with the Rafale deal, which had prompted French foreign ministry’s to release statements against Rahul Gandhi’s accusations.
The meeting with foreign envoys comes at a time when there are serious allegations against Congress party, accusing their leaders of meeting officials belonging foreign countries to influence the country’s domestic politics.
Recently, Rahul Gandhi had accidentally revealed regarding his secret meetings with Chinese officials during his visit to Mansarovar in 2018 which had led to questions regarding Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s perceived intimacy with the Chinese establishment.
Prior to his meeting at Manasarovar, Rahul Gandhi also had a meeting with the Chinese Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui on July 8th 2017, which was suspiciously not made public. The Congress had initially denied any such meeting but later did an extraordinary flip-flop to accept that Rahul Gandhi had indeed met Chinese diplomat after the Chinese embassy had confirmed in its website.
Last year during Gujarat elections, there were allegations that some current and former Pakistani officials had met up with Congress leaders like Mani Shankar Aiyar and former PM Manmohan Singh. Prime Minister Modi had asked the purpose of such a secret meeting at a time when Gujarat was going to polls.
However, the proposed meeting with foreign diplomats is said to be an opportunity for Rahul Gandhi to put across his views concerning the major foreign policy challenges in the current global scenario. It is also reported that this meeting will be an opportunity to establish an association with Rahul Gandhi directly since the NDA government had stopped meetings between Opposition leaders and visiting foreign leaders in their official trips.
