Congress accuses govt of using G20 to run ‘election campaign’

The Congress on Saturday accused the government of running an "election campaign" using the upcoming G20 meeting in India and said this was being done to divert people's attention from real issues.

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

In a post in Hindi on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "The G20 was formed in 1999. 19 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."

"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," Ramesh said.

He said India successfully organised the the Non-Aligned Summit of more than 100 countries in 1983 and after that the summit of Commonwealth countries in New Delhi.

But the then government did not use those opportunities for electoral gains, he said.

"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," Ramesh alleged.

The G20 members represent around 85 per cent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.

The 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 the grouping's current president, India will host the G20 summit next month in New Delhi.