Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the conclusion of the two-day-long G20 Summit on Sunday which saw the participation of the heads of state of the grouping as well as heads of various international organisations. Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Choudhury questioned West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s decision to mark her presence with several BJP leaders at the dinner hosted by President Droupadi Murmu on the occasion of the G20 meet in New Delhi. Choudhury objected to her attendance at the event as he sought to know that would it not undermine Mamata’s stance against the Narendra Modi government.
The state Congress president also wondered if there was “any other reason” also for the Trinamool Congress chief to take part in the programme. This remark came as Banerjee went to the National Capital on Friday to attend the dinner along with several other chief ministers including Hemant Soren and SP Singh Baghel. “When many non-BJP Chief Ministers refrained from attending the dinner, Didi (Mamata Banerjee) went to Delhi a day in advance. She attended the occasion with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the same room,” Choudhury told the reporters in Kolkata.
TMC hits back at the senior leader of Congress
The Trinamool instantly hit back at the senior leader of Congress. Reacting to Adhir Choudhury’s statement, TMC MP Santanu Sen said that Banerjee is one of the prime architects behind the non-BJP bloc I.N.D.I.A and the Congress leader did not need to question her commitment or lecture her about certain protocols that are to be followed from the administrative point of view. “Choudhury will not decide when the chief minister of the state will go to attend a dinner on the occasion of G20 as part of the protocol,” Sen stated to the press.
“Many Chief ministers of the country have boycotted the dinner invitation. The Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament, Mallikarjun Kharge, has not been invited to the dinner. What kind of attraction it was, that she reached Delhi earlier. I wonder what prompted her to rush all the way to Delhi to be in the dinner party along with these leaders,” Mr Choudhury told reporters in Kolkata.
Mr Choudhury had said, “Is there any other reason behind her attending the occasion? Nothing would have happened if she didn’t attend the dinner. The sky would not fall. Mahabharata would not have become impure. The Quran would not have been impure.”
Reacting to his statement, TMC leader Saugata Roy clarified why Banerjee attended the dinner and cited it as a ‘courteous’ gesture. He said, “Mamata Banerjee was invited as the chief minister of West Bengal to the G20 dinner by the President (Droupadi Murmu). She attended it as a matter of ample courtesy. There is no political significance to it and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury should not have commented on it.”
CM Banerjee went to Delhi on Friday, while the dinner party was held the next day. Ms Banerjee’s flight was scheduled for Saturday, but it was rescheduled to Sunday afternoon owing to regulation of flight movements in the national capital, as per the officials.
How did the state BJP react?
West Bengal BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said the Congress and CPI(M) joined hands with Ms Banerjee’s party in Delhi against the saffron camp, betraying the people of the state who were “victims of the TMC’s terror”. “The Congress itself has joined hands with the corrupt TMC in Delhi. It is the BJP which has remained vocal against the corruption of TMC leaders. ED and CBI are raiding against them. The BJP is with the people of Bengal,” Bhattacharya said. “So, people like Adhir Choudhury should explain who is actually cozying up to TMC and doing a disservice to the people of the state,” he added.
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, and West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee were among the state leaders from opposition parties who attended the gala event whereas, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, Rajasthan’s Ashok Gehlot, Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik, and Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal were among the opposition party leaders who gave the event a miss.
The gala dinner was hosted at the newly constructed state-of-the-art Bharat Mandapam, the main venue for the 18th G20 Leaders’ Summit at New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan. While the Centre and other stakeholders left no stone unturned to make the two-day summit a grand success, the dignitaries were treated with delectable gourmet fare as they arrived for dinner at the end of a fruitful huddle at the high table. Before the start of the dinner, President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi warmly welcomed the world leaders with ‘dias’, set against a backdrop depicting the ruins of the Nalanda University in Bihar and India’s G20 presidency theme – ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – One Earth, One Family, One Future’.
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