Cong takes U-turn on Rahul Gandhi's meet with Chinese envoy
The Congress on Monday took a U-turn on party Vice President Rahul Gandhi's meeting with the Chinese ambassador to India, Luo Zhaohui, on July 8 in Delhi amid the ongoing China-India border standoff. While the Congress had earlier termed the reports of Gandhi meeting Zhaohui as "fake news", the political party later acknowledged that the "courtesy meeting" did take place.
Hours after denying that its vice-president Rahul Gandhi met a Chinese envoy in New Delhi, the Congress today acknowledged that the "courtesy" meeting indeed took place amid tension between India and China over the Doklam standoff."Various ambassadors and envoys keep meeting Congress president and vice-president time to time on courtesy basis. The envoys met Rahul Gandhiji... not only Chinese envoy, but also the Bhutanese envoy and the ex-National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon," Congress spokesperson RS Surjewala said, adding that one should not "sensationalise" the meeting."The Prime Minister specially met the Chinese premier in Hamburg, despite China clearly saying it is not interested in a dialogue. Yet, PM attended the BRICS meeting," he further said.CONGRESS FLIP-FLOPEarlier today, the Congreess denied media reports as "fake news" that Rahul Gandhi met a Chinese envoy amid the China-India border standoff at Doklam in Sikkim.Surjewala himself, in a series of tweets, had said some news channels were running "fake news" on Gandhi's alleged meeting with Chinese Ambassador Luo Zhaohui.The channels "will not question three Union Ministers visiting China or PM's (Narendra Modi) bonhomie and praise at G20. Yet run fake news", Surjewala said.He had also alleged that the report was planted by External Affairs Ministry and Intelligence Bureau sources. "They should reverify that we still have diplomatic relations with all our neighbours," Surjewala said.Congress social media head Ramya said the issue was not if Gandhi met the Chinese envoy or now and questioned why the Prime Minister did not flag the border issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping when the two leaders met last week at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany."While Chinese incursions were happening, this meeting took place and the Weak PM didn't deem it necessary to speak about the issue," she wrote on Twitter and posted a picture of Modi with Xi Jinping at the summit."Even if Congress Vice President had met the Chinese Ambassador, I don't see it as an issue, but the PM not flagging it in private or public is an issue," Ramya added.ALSO READChina warns India of serious consequences if it doesn't withdraw troops from Doklam areaDoklam faceoff: Why China wants to grab Bhutan's land and blame IndiaDoklam standoff: Chinese media gets Pakistan and Kashmir into narrative 