'Up to delegation': Govt counters Rahul's Putin meet claim; BJP piles on

NEW DELHI: Government sources connected Thursday refuted Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's allegations that Centre does not let absorption to conscionable overseas dignitaries.In its response, it said that during immoderate authoritative visit, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) facilitates meetings for the visiting dignitary with Government officials and designated Government bodies.

Any engagements extracurricular the Government model are organised astatine the discretion of the visiting delegation. The sources besides noted that since Rahul Gandhi assumed bureau arsenic Leader of the Opposition connected June 9 2024, respective overseas leaders person met him. These see erstwhile Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina connected June 10 2024; Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim connected August 21 2024; Mauritius Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam connected September 16 2025; and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon connected March 8 2025.Also read: Rahul Gandhi's large complaint amid Putin's India visit; cites Vajpayee–Manmohan eraThis comes up of Putin's highly anticipated sojourn to India, arsenic Rahul alleged that the authorities tells visiting overseas dignitaries not to conscionable the Leader of the Opposition owed to its "insecurity". "Generally, the contented has been that whoever visits India, the LoP utilized to person a meeting. It utilized to hap successful the Vajpayee government, the Manmohan Singh government. But this is not the lawsuit now. Whenever I sojourn abroad, they suggest that those radical shouldn't conscionable the LoP.

People told america we person been informed not to conscionable the LoP. LoP provides a 2nd perspective; we besides correspond India, but the authorities doesn't privation america to conscionable overseas dignitaries. PM Modi and the overseas ministry bash not travel this present due to the fact that of insecurity," helium said.Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor backed Rahul Gandhi's interest that the LoP gets barred from gathering visiting dignitaries successful Modi-led Centre, saying the authorities "should respond."