Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday took a veiled dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that ‘self-styled vishwaguru‘ will attend the upcoming G20 Summit in person, after United States President Donald Trump announced that he would boycott the gathering.
“Now that President Trump has announced that he will not be attending the G20 Summit in South Africa on November 22–23, we can be certain that the self-styled vishwaguru will himself attend in person,” Ramesh said in a post on X.
Since becoming Prime Minister in 2014, PM Modi has attended all G20 summits, including those in Brisbane, Antalya, Hangzhou, Hamburg, Buenos Aires, Osaka, Riyadh (virtual, due to COVID), Rome, Bali, and New Delhi.
The senior Congress leader’s remarks came hours after Trump declared that no US government official would participate in the summit, citing alleged “human rights abuses” against white farmers in South Africa.
Even earlier, Ramesh had taken a swipe at PM Modi for skipping the 22nd ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, alleging he wanted to steer clear of a possible confrontation with President Trump amid India’s trade dispute with the US.
PM Modi attended the ASEAN Summit held in October this year virtually, citing the ongoing Deepavali festivities in India as his reason.
US TO BOYCOTT G20 SUMMIT
In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump said that no US government official would attend the Group of 20 Summit scheduled to take place on November 22 and 23.
“It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa. Afrikaners — people descended from Dutch, French, and German settlers—are being killed, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated,” Trump wrote.
The President, however, said he looked forward to hosting the 2026 G20 Summit in Miami, Florida.
The Trump administration has long accused South Africa’s ruling government of allowing violence and discrimination against white farmers, a charge repeatedly dismissed by Pretoria. South African officials maintained that white citizens still enjoy better living conditions than most Black South Africans, even decades after apartheid ended.
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