China jab backfires? Congress on backfoot after Salman Khurshid meets CPC delegation

Salman Khurshid, Chairman, Foreign Affairs Dept of Congress.

• Congress criticized BJP-RSS for meeting CPC, then met them as well.
• BJP accuses Congress of double standards after leader meets CPC delegation
• RSS called its meeting with CPC a courtesy call focused on ideology, not policy

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The Congress found itself on the defensive on Wednesday just as it launched a sharp attack on the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for holding meetings with a visiting delegation of the Communist Party of China (CPC), only for it to emerge that a senior Congress leader had also met the same delegation a day later.

The controversy erupted after the CPC delegation, led by Sun Haiyan, Vice Minister of the International Department of the CPC, met BJP leaders at the party headquarters in Delhi on Monday and followed it up with a courtesy visit to the RSS headquarters on Tuesday. The meetings prompted a strong response from the Congress, which accused the ruling party of hypocrisy and "meek surrender" on China at a time when ties remain strained following the Galwan clash and continuing border tensions.

Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera described the BJP's engagement with the CPC as a contradiction of its tough public posture. "A meek surrender. That is the most appropriate phrase for the BJP's policy towards China. Modi government's hypocrisy in its dealings with China has muddled India's foreign policy," Khera said, alleging that the BJP's "laal aankh" had turned into "laal salaams".

The Congress also questioned whether the BJP and the RSS had raised issues of national interest during the closed-door interactions, including China's support to Pakistan and the unresolved standoff along the Line of Actual Control.

However, the party's offensive lost momentum on Tuesday after it acknowledged that the same CPC delegation had met Salman Khurshid, chairman of the Congress' foreign affairs department and a former external affairs minister. The Congress said the meeting took place at the request of the visiting delegation and with the approval of the Government of India.

"The CPC delegation had requested for a meeting, the request was approved by the government of India and that is why our foreign affairs department chief, Salman Khurshid, met them," Khera told reporters, even as he continued to target the BJP and RSS over their interactions with the Chinese delegation.

The sequencing of events has allowed the BJP to accuse the Congress of double standards, recalling earlier instances when the saffron party had questioned Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, over engagements with Chinese officials. BJP leaders argued that inter-party interactions are part of diplomatic normalcy and that the Congress' criticism rang hollow once its own leadership held talks with the CPC.

BJP spokespersons defended the meetings as part of an effort to revive party-to-party communication amid a gradual stabilisation of India-China ties. "Formal meetings take place when the situation improves. Compared to a year ago, the situation is better," BJP spokesperson Tuhin Sinha said, adding that the Congress did not have the moral authority to lecture the government on foreign policy.

The RSS, for its part, described its interaction with the CPC delegation as a courtesy call with no agenda, saying the Chinese representatives were interested in understanding the organisation's structure and social work. Senior RSS leaders said the meeting focussed on explaining the Sangh's ideological journey and organisational functioning, not on policy matters.

Within opposition circles, the episode has triggered questions about whether the Congress rushed into attacking the BJP-RSS combine without anticipating the optics of its own engagement with the CPC delegation. While the party insists there is a clear distinction between meetings held by a ruling party and those involving the opposition, critics argue that the Congress handed the BJP an easy counter by appearing inconsistent on the very issue it sought to highlight.