India, June 21 -- The Congress on Saturday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "not taking up" with US President Donald Trump the killing of three Indian seafarers as a result of an American attack and alleged that "PR first" was the government's mantra and not "nation first". The Opposition party also cited the responses of the former prime ministers Manmohan Singh -- during the diplomatic row surrounding MEA official Devyani Khobragade in 2013 -- and Indira Gandhi to argue that previous Congress governments had given primacy to nation's interest when speaking with America. In the context of the Modi-Trump bilateral meeting and the public remarks they made on Wednesday on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France, Congress's media and publicity department head Pawan Khera claimed that Modi sat with his gaze lowered before Trump.
"He sat huddled on the sofa, addressing Trump as 'excellency'. It was truly embarrassing. It looked as though a company agent were speaking to the boss; we had never seen a prime minister like this before," Khera said at a press conference here. The US killed three Indian sailors, yet Trump did not even express regret because Narendra Modi sat there "meekly", content merely with the praise he was receiving, the Congress leader said. "Narendra Modi kept giggling but failed to ask Trump a single question about the killing of Indian sailors, simply because his skin had been complimented. "(External Affairs Minister) S Jaishankar returns after being reprimanded by Marco Rubio. Narendra Modi returns after hearing praise for his skin. It is deeply disheartening to see the government of the world's largest democracy return from the global stage having suffered such indignity," Khera said. This is not "nation first' but "PR first", the Congress leader asserted. The message Manmohan Singh conveyed to the US as the prime minister regarding the Khobragade case had astonished the entire world, Khera said. It was the UPA government that succeeded in placing Pakistan on the FATF 'grey list', and yet today, Modi's "friend" Trump invites Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir to dinner following Operation Sindoor, he said.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.