‘Govt Is Using G20 To Run Election Campaign’: Congress

On Saturday, the opposition Congress accused the government of running an “election campaign” by using the upcoming G20 meeting in India and alleged that this was being done to divert people’s attention from real issues.

The G20 Leaders’ Summit is scheduled to be held on September 9-10 at the Bharat Mandapam International Exhibition-Convention Centre.

In a post in Hindi on X, Congress general secretary had this to say: “The G20 was formed in 1999. Nineteen countries and the European Union are its members. Since its formation, the G20 summit has been held in 17 countries in turns. Now it is India’s turn.”

Ramesh said, “But the kind of election campaign that is being run here and efforts being made to create such an atmosphere around it, has not happened in any other country. In fact, this is being done to divert the attention of the people from the important issues”.

According to Ramesh, India had successfully organised the Non-Aligned Summit of more than 100 countries in 1983 and following that, the summit of Commonwealth countries in New Delhi. However, the erstwhile government did not exploit these opportunities for electoral gains, he added.

“Then I remember that statement of L K Advani. On 5 April 2014, he described Narendra Modi as a great event manager. To divert the attention of the public, the Prime Minister is only doing event management,” alleged Ramesh.

The G20 member countries represent about two-thirds of the world population, over 75% of the global trade and around 85 per cent of the global GDP. The G20 grouping comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the European Union (EU). As current president of the grouping, India will host the G20 summit next month in New Delhi.

Meanwhile, in another development, 320 economists from 91 institutions across India have extended their support to Prof Sabyasachi Das of Ashoka University. Das’ paper suggesting voter manipulation in the 2019 elections had sparked a controversy; the economists have demanded that the university reinstate him immediately.

Expressing solidarity with Prof Das, the economists, in a statement, said, “We, economists working in India, strongly believe that academic freedom is the cornerstone of a vibrant educational and research community, and that everyone must have the right to pursue knowledge, share their findings, and engage in open dialogue without the fear of censorship or retribution.We stand in solidarity with Prof Sabyasachi Das and extend our support for the demands of the economics department at Ashoka University. We urge the Governing Body of Ashoka University to immediately reinstate Prof Das unconditionally.”

A few days after Prof Das’s resignation, Professor Pulapre Balakrishnan had also resigned in protest over acceptance of resignation of the former. Meanwhile, earlier, several departments of the Sonepat-based private university had also demanded that the two professors be offered their positions back unconditionally by the university.