Congress slams Centre for ‘excluding’ opposition from AI summit

Hyderabad: BC welfare minister Ponnam Prabhakar and Congress MP Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy on Saturday said that the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi was not a BJP event but one organised by the Govt of India, and that opposition leaders should have been invited. They said the summit was an international event and that the Congress was not opposed to it. They alleged that the Youth Congress protest was aimed at protecting the interests of farmers and the poor in the country, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi was failing to safeguard.Ponnam Prabhakar said that when the Telangana Rising-2047 summit was organised, former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, Union ministers G Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay were invited. He said KCR and the two Union ministers, who belong to the opposition BRS and the BJP respectively, were given due respect and invited. He added that unity and cooperation among states were necessary for the development of the country, and that it was not appropriate for the Centre to act in a discriminatory manner.
He said the Congress had no intention of disrupting the AI Summit, but alleged that the BJP govt at the Centre had acted in a narrow-minded manner. He said India should have demonstrated unity before the world, but alleged that the BJP govt was insulting opposition leaders. He further pointed out that on Republic Day, Rahul Gandhi was allotted a seat in the third row. He added that in the past, when the Congress was in power, it had a history of respecting opposition leaders by allotting them front-row seats alongside the Prime Minister.Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy questioned the political ethics of deliberately excluding opposition leaders from an international conference such as the AI Summit. He said that the more Rahul Gandhi was blocked, the more his stature and popularity would grow. He added that Rahul Gandhi was not a leader driven by positions and status, and that the Gandhi family was known for its sacrifices for the country. He said the policies of the central govt should change and that India must show unity before the world.