Amid the growing ‘Sanatan Dharma’ row, MK Stalin, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and father of Udhayanidhi, attended the G20 dinner hosted by President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday.
While defending his son Udhayanidhi over his remark on ‘Sanatan Dharma’, Stalin had on Thursday said Union ministers were using the issue to divert attention from issues such as Manipur ethnic clashes.
Stalin shook hands with US President Joe Biden while was posing for pictures with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar.
Interestingly, Stalin was the lone CM from South India at yesterday’s gala G20 dinner. While Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy was abroad, Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan, Karnataka’s Siddaramaiah, and Telangana’s K Chandrashekar Rao had turned down the invitations for yesterday’s gala dinner.
But that’s not all. At least three Congress chief ministers rejected the invite. Siddaramaiah, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel and Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot refused to attend the high-profile event.
While Gehlot and Baghel both blamed lack of permissions to travel by air, the home ministry rubbished the claims. The BJP said the actual reason of their absence is rather bizarre — not inviting Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. Siddaramaiah has in fact made it clear that it is “wrong”.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram had earlier said, “I cannot imagine any other democratic country’s government not inviting the recognised Leader of Opposition to a state dinner for world leaders. This can happen only in countries where there is no democracy or Opposition. I hope India, that is Bharat, has not reached a stage where democracy and the Opposition will cease to exist”.
However, BJP sources cite the example of BJP president Jagat Prakash Nadda who was also not invited for the G20 event.
But Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was not convinced. He too said not inviting Kharge to the dinner was equal to BJP not valuing 60% of India’s population, an argument BJP laughed off.
However, with rain ravaging Himachal Pradesh — a state that is in dire need of central assistance — Congress Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu chose to break ranks with his colleagues and attended the event. Interestingly, PM Modi has put some special photos on his Instagram account from last night where a photo of him embracing Sukhu finds place.
This August, Sukhu praised Nadda for at least inquiring about the state of affairs in Himachal Pradesh after it was battered by continuous rain. “At least Nadda ji was gracious enough to inquire about the damage suffered, but the state leadership here is only out to score brownie points to get political mileage,” he said.
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