BJP asks whom Rahul Gandhi will meet in the US; Congress lists Columbia and Chicago talks

BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi on Wednesday asked whether Rahul Gandhi’s coming trip to the United States was meant for “students” or for “anti-India forces”, and the Congress answered the same day with the dates and venues of two university events. The Leader of Opposition is due to speak at Columbia University on November 17 and at the University of Chicago on November 18.

The exchange is the latest in a running dispute over Mr. Gandhi’s foreign travel, which the BJP has raised more than once in recent weeks.

What the BJP said

Mr. Trivedi, a Rajya Sabha MP, said Mr. Gandhi “should go and tell if he is interacting with the students or interacting with anti-India forces”. He went on to make a case about the Leader of Opposition’s priorities rather than his itinerary alone.

By Mr. Trivedi’s account, Mr. Gandhi has never spent even 15 days campaigning for his party in a state that was going to the polls. Setting aside the Covid period, he said, there had never been “a stretch of even 25 consecutive weeks” without a foreign trip. He pointed to Mr. Gandhi’s recent visit to Vietnam, followed by the American trip, and contrasted it with BJP national president Nitin Nabin’s travel in Uttar Pradesh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s several days in Punjab.

The BJP also repeated its charge that Mr. Gandhi goes abroad and makes “baseless” allegations of “vote chori” after his party loses elections.

What the Congress said

Sam Pitroda, chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, said from Chicago that the programme had been fixed well in advance. He named two engagements.

At Columbia University on November 17 Mr. Gandhi will take part in a fireside chat, which Mr. Pitroda said would be mainly on “the global rise of the student movement” and its impact on democracy, education, employment, the economy and the environment. At the University of Chicago on November 18 he will hold a conversation with Professor Robert Pape on geopolitics and global affairs, including the Middle East and the Iran war.

Mr. Pitroda rejected the BJP’s claim that Mr. Gandhi defames India when abroad, calling it a “bogus” argument. He said the point was “showing facts as you see it”, not criticising anybody.

How we got here

The charge is not new. On October 23, Mr. Trivedi told a press conference in New Delhi that Mr. Gandhi meets “questionable individuals” abroad at undisclosed locations and returns to run down India. Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge replied by asking what the country’s intelligence agencies were doing and challenging the BJP to “show documents” if Mr. Gandhi had done anything anti-national. We reported that exchange in our earlier story.

About a week earlier, in Patna, Mr. Nabin had called Mr. Gandhi a “puppet of a foreign toolkit gang”, as we reported in our account of that rally.

The row over foreign trips

1. October 23Trivedi says Gandhi meets 'questionable individuals' abroad; Priyank Kharge asks what RAW is doing
2. November 11Trivedi asks whether Gandhi will meet students or 'anti-India forces' in the US; Pitroda names the two events
3. November 17Fireside chat at Columbia University
4. November 18Conversation with Professor Robert Pape at the University of Chicago

The same day’s other charges

At a press conference at BJP headquarters the same Wednesday, Mr. Trivedi accused the Congress and its INDIA bloc allies of insulting Hinduism for electoral gains. He questioned Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s description of Diwali as “Khushiyon ki Eid”, objected to remarks attributed to Congress MP Imran Masood, and took issue with Mr. Gandhi’s description of the Indian economy as “dead”. He also questioned a purported interview of Sonia Gandhi about the Babri Masjid demolition of December 6, 1992. The report of that press conference carries no response from the Congress.

Why it matters to readers

Mr. Gandhi’s talks are public events at universities, and the topics Mr. Pitroda listed, from student movements to the Iran war, will be on the record once held. Whatever he says on the Middle East or on the state of Indian democracy will be set against the BJP’s argument that his trips are a pattern. For voters in the states where the Congress is campaigning, the BJP’s attack is also about attendance: Mr. Trivedi’s claim is that the party’s leader is away from the ground.

What happens next

Mr. Gandhi’s departure date and full itinerary have not been announced in the reports we have seen, and he has not yet responded to Mr. Trivedi. The Columbia fireside chat on November 17 and the Chicago conversation on November 18 are the next markers. Both parties can be expected to react to whatever he says there.