'They Don’t Value 60% India's Leader': Rahul Gandhi on No G20 Invite for Kharge

Rahul Gandhi also called the speculated name change from India to 'Bharat' a "panic reaction."

Rahul Gandhi spoke to the media in Brussels while on his Europe trip. 

(PTI)

Speaking to the media in Brussels on Friday while on his Europe trip, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi reacted to the news of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge not being invited to the G20 gala dinner being hosted by the President on Saturday, saying that “they don’t value the leader of 60 per cent of India’s population.”

“They have decided not to invite the leader of the Opposition. It tells you something, it tells you they don’t value the leader of 60 per cent of India’s population. It’s something people should think about, why they feel the need to do that,” Gandhi said.

Kharge, besides being the Congress president is also the leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha. All cabinet and state ministers, and all Chief Ministers, have been invited to the dinner. All Secretaries to the Government of India and other distinguished guests are also on the guest list.

Gandhi, meanwhile, is on a week-long Europe trip, organised by the ‘Indian Overseas Congress’. Besides Belgium, where he arrived on 7 September, Thursday, Gandhi will be traveling to France, Netherlands and Norway too.

'Country Name Change A Panic Reaction'

At the Brussels press conference, Gandhi also reacted to the speculated name-change of the country from India to ‘Bharat’.

“I am perfectly happy with the names we have in our Constitution, ‘India that is Bharat’ works perfectly well for me,” he said, referring to Article 1 of the Indian constitution which says “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.”

He added that this move came soon after the announcement of the name of the opposition alliance, INDIA.

“But these are panic reactions in a sense, there is a little bit of fear in the government. These are distraction tactics. We came out with the name INDIA for our coalition and it is a fantastic idea because we consider ourselves to be the voice of India, and so the word works very well...but it's obviously disturbed the PM enough that he wants to change the name of the country, which is absurd but that’s how it is,” Gandhi said.

Moreover, Gandhi said that the name change is also following his press conference on businessman Gautam Adani a few days ago.

“It’s also interesting that every time we raise the issue of Adani and crony capitalism, the PM comes up with some dramatic new diversion tactic. It’s curious that soon after I did a press conference on Adani, this new tactic is used,” Gandhi said.

On 31 August, ahead of the INDIA meet in Mumbai, Gandhi had done a press conference demanding that PM Modi "clears his name and categorically explains what is going on" with the fresh allegations against the Adani Group which were brought forwards by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

'Fight Between Gandhi's Vision Vs Godse's Vision'

Gandhi also said that he has come to Europe to for “an exchange of ideas of what is happening in India and here (in Europe).”

Commenting on attacks on minorities in India, Gandhi said there is “a full-scale attack on assault on democratic institutions in India.”

“This is the fight between two visions. I like to term it the fight between Mahatma Gandhi’s vision and Nathuram Godse’s vision,” he said.