Former Union minister P Chidambaram has said that BRICS summits have not delivered any tangible benefits, a remark that has triggered visible discomfort within the Congress as India hosts the BRICS meet in Delhi.
According to the report, senior party leaders have pushed back against Chidambaram’s broad criticism, arguing that the forum carries strategic and diplomatic weight at a time when multiple heads of state and government are attending the summit.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said BRICS provides an important platform for the “Global South” and noted that the grouping represents a large share of the world’s population and about 41% of global GDP. He also pointed to practical aspects such as growing trade among BRICS countries, while acknowledging concerns that India’s exports to BRICS have fallen even as imports have risen.
Former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid said the importance of BRICS cannot be ignored, as a significant portion of the world’s population lives in member countries and many of them are expected to be major economies in the coming years. He added that India’s BRICS presidency should be treated as a national responsibility rather than a government’s partisan initiative, and said the world is watching Delhi with expectations.
The report said the public rebuttals from senior Congress figures effectively distanced the party’s leadership voices from Chidambaram’s remarks during the summit period.
