A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's historic visit to Ukraine, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi mocked him for his 'hug diplomacy', saying "kabhi Ukraine bhagenge kabhi Russia". The Congress MP made these remarks during his address at the 'Samvidhan Samman Sammelan', held in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj on Saturday. This comes after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar defended PM Modi embracing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visits to their nations, citing "cultural gap".
"Have you ever seen any labourer or worker's interview on the internet. Plumbers, cobblers, or potters who run the country are never spotted in media. But when Modiji hugs someone media says superpower ban gya super power ban gya...Kabhi vo Ukraine bhaagenge kabhi Russia kabhi gale lagenge [Sometimes he goes to Ukraine then he goes to Russia then he hugs someone and media says country has become superpower]...how is it possible?...that is why such discussions are imporant to know and understand what the 90 per cent of the people are thinking and what the actual issues are," he said.
During his visit to Kyiv, PM Modi had embraced Zelenskyy following a handshake that symbolised India's solidarity with the war-stricken nation. This gesture by the PM took place just six weeks after he had embraced Russia's President Vladimir Putin, during his visit to Moscow.
Following this, S Jaishankar was asked about the significance of PM Modi embracing both the leaders, who are currenlty at war. Responding to this, Jaishankar explained: "In our part of the world, when people meet people, they are given to embracing each other, it may not be part of your culture but I can assure you it is part of ours. In fact, today, I think, I saw, Prime Minister (Modi) also embrace President Zelenskyy."
“And I have seen him do it with a number of other leaders in a number of other places. So, I think, we have a slight ... cultural gap here in terms of what these courtesies mean,” he added.