Final week, it was shocking that Chief of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge weren’t invited to a dinner hosted by President Drupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan for Russian President Vladimir Putin. This gave the impression to be a discordant be aware issued throughout a rigorously deliberate go to.
Time will inform how sturdy the enduring partnership between New Delhi and Moscow stays on key bilateral points resembling commerce, power, defence, nuclear energy and labor migration.
The affect that can have on US President Donald Trump will quickly be seen. The US group is right here to renew talks with the Indian aspect on a proposed bilateral commerce settlement.
That is Putin’s first go to to India for the reason that Ukraine warfare started in February 2022, displaying that the Russian president just isn’t remoted and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has choices, not simply with the US, with which India has loved a strategic relationship for 1 / 4 of a century. Nonetheless, in that case, overseas coverage turns into nothing however a focus of pursuits.
The “tarmac second” – Modi was there when Putin stepped off the airplane and the 2 embraced warmly – a photograph of them smiling within the automobile collectively, Putin’s reward for India’s rise and an interview with two feminine TV anchors from India Right this moment all contributed to the prospects of this high-profile go to. A number of questions had been then requested.
Rahul Gandhi criticized the federal government for not permitting him to fulfill Putin, including that this was a departure from previous follow. Rahul asserted that LoP talks would permit visiting dignitaries to listen to differing views and must be held recurrently in a democratic system. He attributed this “blunder” to a “feeling of insecurity” throughout the authorities.
Beforehand, it was frequent for opposition members to be invited to banquets held for visiting overseas leaders. The federal government’s place is that it’s as much as visiting officers to resolve who they wish to meet. However the authorities can all the time immediate you to fulfill with a selected individual outdoors of official enterprise.
It isn’t that authorities leaders have by no means met Rahul Gandhi. A number of overseas leaders have met with him throughout their visits up to now yr, together with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh in June 2024, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia and Prime Minister Pham Minh Trinh of Vietnam in August 2024, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon of New Zealand in March 2025, and Prime Minister N. Ramgoolam of Mauritius in September 2025.
authorities place
The federal government could level out that this choice in the end rests with how overseas dignitaries plan their visits. However what’s fascinating about this story is not that Rahul did not have a one-on-one assembly with Putin. Quite, it was about Lok Sabha MPs not being invited to a cocktail party at Rashtrapati Bhawan. The dinner was an official operate for an individual as vital as the top of the Russian Federation, whose go to to India was intently adopted by world capitals. The occasion was held at a time when India goes by means of a troublesome interval within the wake of President Trump’s commerce destruction. And the checklist of company was by no means small. Greater than 150 invitees participated. It was additionally not about Rahul Gandhi personally, given the statutory standing of the LoP.
Furthermore, this might strengthen the federal government’s place as a result of the Nationalist Congress Get together has long-standing ties with Russia and its former alter ego, the Soviet Union. It was Indira Gandhi who signed the Strategic Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation in August 1971 in view of the deepening ties between Pakistan, China and the US previous to the creation of Bangladesh. She sprung into motion the second then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger made a secret go to to China from Pakistan inside days of his go to to India.
The Congress prime ministers who adopted her strengthened relations with Russia. PV Narasimha Rao targeted on Russia and the newly impartial Central Asian republics throughout his tenure following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Manmohan Singh deepened strategic ties with Russia and promoted a number of vital protection agreements, together with the manufacturing of BrahMos.
The Congress is upset that the invitation to the Rashtrapati Bhawan banquet was despatched to Shashi Tharoor as a substitute of Rahul. However Tharoor just isn’t the issue right here. Certainly, he enjoys his relationship with the Prime Minister. However Tharoor’s profile is way more than that of a member of parliament. Along with being a preferred writer, he additionally served as Beneath-Secretary-Normal of the United Nations earlier than getting into politics.
Evidently, the presence of leaders of LoP and different political events at state dinners of heads of state is barely used to venture a united face of India, no matter political variations on the home entrance.
old school bipartisan spirit
Prior to now, there have been many examples of presidency and opposition events working collectively to strengthen India’s place on the world stage on numerous points.
Indira Gandhi had sought Vajpayee’s assist in creating Bangladesh to ship a sign that all the nation would help her.
In 1994, Narasimha Rao appointed then Nationalist Get together Vajpayee to go the official delegation to the UN, headed by MoS Salman Khurshid, to counter Pakistan’s assaults on India’s human rights file in Jammu and Kashmir.
Prime Minister Vajpayee had “inspired” Left leaders to agitate demanding that India not signal the Complete Nuclear Check Ban Treaty (CTBT) to fend off strain from the West.
And earlier this yr, Prime Minister Modi despatched multi-party delegations to many international locations all over the world to elucidate India’s place on Operation Sindur.
On November 26, the 2 LoPs took to the rostrum together with the President, Vice President, Prime Minister and Sabah State Speaker at an occasion held on the Central Corridor of the Outdated Parliament Home to commemorate Structure Day. This spirit of bipartisanship was lacking from the visitor checklist at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Neerja Chaudhary, contributing editor at The Indian Specific, has lined the final 11 Lok Sabha elections. She is the writer of How Prime Ministers Determine.
