Congress Questions PM Modi's G7 Outcome
The Congress party on Thursday questioned the outcomes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's engagements at the G7 Summit in France, alleging that he failed to defend India's strategic interests and remained silent on key issues concerning the country's sovereignty and foreign policy.
In a statement issued by its Foreign Affairs Department, the Congress said it had expected Modi to use the G7 platform to assert India's leadership of the Global South and firmly safeguard the country's energy security and strategic autonomy. Instead, it claimed, the summit highlighted a 'gap between rhetoric and results'.
The opposition party said that despite repeated claims by the BJP of a close relationship between Modi and US President Donald Trump, the Prime Minister was unable to secure any sanctions waiver that would have enabled India to continue importing Russian oil. It argued that the failure would ultimately burden Indian consumers through higher fuel and commodity prices.
The Congress also trained its guns on Modi's silence over Trump's repeated assertions that he had played a role in securing a ceasefire following Operation Sindoor. The party said the Prime Minister's failure to publicly rebut the claim raised serious concerns.
'Such silence can only be interpreted as either tacit acceptance of the President's assertion or an unwillingness to publicly challenge it,' the statement said, adding that it undermined India's long-standing position against third-party mediation in bilateral matters.
Former External Affairs Minister and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid echoed the criticism, saying the Prime Minister had missed an opportunity to clearly state India's position on issues directly affecting the country's sovereignty and strategic interests.
The Congress further questioned Trump's public offer of 'support' to Modi, saying its implications remained unclear. It argued that if the remarks suggested involvement in India's domestic affairs, they would amount to unacceptable interference, while any implied security commitment would require transparency before Parliament.
The party also accused the Prime Minister of failing to raise several issues of strategic importance during his interactions with the US leadership. These included the reported sinking of the Iranian naval vessel IRIS Dena, the deaths of Indian sailors, the depiction of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on a US government map, and reports suggesting a downgrading of India's strategic importance in American policy documents.
According to the Congress, the government had also failed to counter what it described as Pakistan's growing diplomatic manoeuvring in the wake of developments involving the US and Iran. The party alleged that India's geopolitical position had weakened under the BJP government's foreign policy approach.
The statement further claimed that despite attending the summit and receiving international honours, Modi had not secured any significant gains in areas such as technology transfer, defence cooperation, trade negotiations, immigration concerns affecting the Indian diaspora, or visa-related issues.
'India's interests must remain paramount, irrespective of who occupies the White House or South Block,' the Congress said, adding that bilateral relations should be guided by national interests rather than personal equations between leaders.
The party maintained that the Prime Minister's reluctance to publicly challenge actions and statements that it viewed as contrary to India's interests had raised concerns about the government's handling of foreign policy and strategic autonomy.
