Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 11: Even as the ruling BJP expectedly slammed the Congress leader and the former union minister P Chidambaram for questioning the tangible gains for India from international forums like the current BRICS summit in New Delhi, his own party colleague and MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday said the grouping shows India’s “diplomatic convening power.”
Speaking ahead of the BRICS summit in Delhi, Tharoor called the summit an important platform for the Global South. He said India was providing an important platform for the Global South. Though the Global South was of over 100 countries, but here India has 11 key players from the Global South who collectively represent much of the diversity of views, as well as the range of countries that India was essentially chairing on this particular occasion.
Tharoor highlighted the importance of BRICS Summit and said the 11 BRICS countries represented a majority of the world’s population and 41 per cent of global GDP. He said it was not a small matter, but something that has to be taken very seriously by the rest of the world. Saying that it is a matter of prestige for India to host BRICS Summit 2026, Tharoor said the event has great global value.
A day earlier Mr Chidambaram had questioned the tangible benefits India has gained from the previous BRICS summits, saying he had not seen any significant outcomes from the last two or three meetings. Talking about the upcoming BRICS Summit 2026 in Delhi, he said India was part of several multilateral groupings, including BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), G20 and QUAD, but he questioned what concrete benefits the country has received from them.
He stated that he did not know how many Presidents and how many Prime Ministers are coming but he did not think the last two or three BRICS summits have resulted in tangible benefits or tangible results for India.
The BJP immediately lashed out at him and called him part of the “naraaz phupha” lot who can’t digest India’s growth and development.
The development comes at a time when the stage is set for BRICS 2026, with India welcoming global leaders to the grouping’s deliberations to fortify ties, accelerate cooperation and enhance shared prosperity. This time, India is hosting the BRICS Summit on September 12 and 13 in the national capital. The BRICS Summit will be attended by leaders of 11 member countries and 10 partner countries, besides some international organisations.
India assumed Chairmanship of BRICS for the fourth time on January 1, with its 2026 presidency driven by the theme, “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.” Among the delegates, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and a number of global leaders are arriving in Delhi to attend the summit.