In an embarrassing flip-flop, the Congress on Monday went all guns blazing to deny a meeting between Rahul Gandhi and the Chinese Ambassador to India luo Zhaohui, only to retract it later as the party vice-president himself came out in the open to admit it.
Nevertheless, Rahul hit out at the Government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying, "If the Government is so concerned about me meeting an Ambassador they should explain why three Ministers are availing Chinese hospitality while the borderstand-off is on."
"And for the record I am not the guy sitting on the swing while a thousand Chinese troops had physically entered India," he tweeted, in a dig at Modi and even shared the picture of Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on a swing in Ahmedabad during the latter's tour to India in 2014. The Armies of the two sides were in a stand-off then at the Chumar region in ladakh, coinciding with Xi's first visit to India.
Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu reacted saying, "If a Congress leader has met with the Chinese Ambassador what is secret about itIJ Why should they try to hide it and later give explanationsIJ"
The news about the meeting between Rahul and the Chinese envoy came in public domain after the Chinese Embassy posted the details of the meeting on its website.
"On July 8, Ambassador luo Zhaohui met with Rahul Gandhi, vice-chairman of the Congress Party, and exchanged views on the current Sino-Indian relations and other business. Counsellor Zhou Yuyun attended the meeting," the Chinese Embassy website said. It is presumed the Chinese are trying to break the impasse by engaging with the political leaders.
However, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala strongly denied any such meeting and went on to accuse the media and the Government of 'planting' false news. "A wanting to be 'Bhakt' channel will not question 3 Union Ministers visiting China or PM's bonhomie & praise at G20 yet run fake news!," he tweeted adding, "Before MEA & IB sources plant news with 'Bhakts', they should reverify that we still have diplomatic relations with all our neighbours."
Interestingly, the Chinese Embassy website pulled down the news item about the meeting, possibly under pressure from the Congress. But by then the entire media had taken the snapshot of the news and confronted the Congress again.
Hours later, Rahul conceded that he had met the Chinese envoy. "It is my job to be informed on critical issues. I met the Chinese Ambassador, Ex-NSA, Congress leaders from NE & the Bhutanese Ambassador."
Rahul had met both the Chinese and Bhutanese ambassadors along with former national security adviser Shiv Shankar Menon possibly to get an assessment of the situation at the border.
Rahul had on Friday also criticised Modi for his silence on the issue of ongoing turmoil with China in the Sikkim region.
Following Rahul's acknowledgment, Surjewala retracted his statement saying such meetings with envoys are routine. "Nobody should try to sensationalise such normal courtesy calls or term them as events, like the sources from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) are trying to do," Surjewala said.
Defending Rahul's meeting, another Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said: "If so much of brouhaha is being made about it, then why did the Prime Minister of India actually cross lake Alster and go to the Grand Elysee hotelIJ To meet with the Chinese President Xi JinpingIJ Especially, after the Chinese had made it known that a bilateral meeting because of the stand-off in Bhutan is not possibleIJ"
Meetings between envoys and political leaders are routine but the timing of the meeting between Rahul and luo, the denial by Congress followed by Chinese pulling out its news item and later the Congress VP admitting to the meeting gave it a curious turn.
"The confusion has ended up making a story where none was needed. It's not a crime to meet the Chinese or PM Modi wouldn't have meet Pres Xi," National Conference leader Omar Abdullah tweeted.