A fresh political spat broke out after Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge was seen sitting in the audience rather than on the dais during the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament & Development ceremony.
Even though Sonia Gandhi, who chairs the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, was on stage, Kharge stayed off it for the entire event.
The incident quickly triggered reactions. The BJP seized on the visuals and questioned what it portrayed as the Congress leadership’s internal behaviour. Party leaders circulated a video on X, stitching together two contrasting clips.
One part of the video shows Kharge approaching Sonia Gandhi, his hands folded, slightly bowing as he greets her. Alongside it, the BJP inserted footage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi bending down to touch L. K. Advani’s feet before giving him a hug.
Labelled “Sanskar Apne Apne”, a line the BJP itself used in the post, the video aimed to underline what the party described as differences in how senior figures are treated in the two political camps.
Congress has not issued a detailed explanation for why Kharge was not invited onto the stage, but the optics alone were enough for the BJP to attempt to score political points.
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