Congress Divided Over BRICS: Tharoor Hails India’s Role, Chidambaram Questions Gains
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New Delhi, Sept 11: Differences within the Congress over the significance of the BRICS summit have come into the open, with senior party leaders Shashi Tharoor and P. Chidambaram taking sharply contrasting positions on India’s hosting of the grouping’s 18th summit.
While Tharoor described the BRICS platform and India’s role in hosting the summit as a matter of considerable prestige, Chidambaram questioned whether recent BRICS meetings had delivered any tangible benefits to the country.
Tharoor, meanwhile, has also cautioned that BRICS should not become an anti-Western platform, saying such an approach would not be in India’s national interest. He advocated maintaining the grouping as a broader, non-aligned platform while pursuing India’s strategic interests.
The contrasting statements have provided fresh ammunition to the BJP, which has accused the Congress of lacking a coherent position on India’s growing global diplomatic engagement.
Tharoor said BRICS provided an important platform for the Global South and brought together 11 key countries representing a substantial part of the world’s population and economy. He also underlined the significance of several heads of government arriving in India for the summit.
“Having a dozen heads of state and government, not only members of BRICS but also some observers coming at the presidential and prime ministerial level, is a matter of great prestige for us,” Tharoor said.
Shashi Tharoor shows the mirror to “Naraz Fufa” 🔥
— Megh Updates 🚨™ (@MeghUpdates) September 11, 2026
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor: “BRICS happening in India is a matter of HUGE PRESTIGE for Bharat.”
– P. Chidambaram had questioned what India BENEFITS from BRICS.pic.twitter.com/Rv5zHt7Tof
His comments came against the backdrop of Chidambaram’s criticism of the grouping. The former Union minister said he did not know how many Presidents and Prime Ministers would attend the summit and argued that the last two or three BRICS summits had not produced tangible benefits or results for India.
Chidambaram also questioned the concrete gains India had obtained from its participation in several multilateral groupings, including BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, G20 and QUAD.
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The contrasting statements have provided fresh ammunition to the BJP, which has accused the Congress of lacking a coherent position on India’s growing global diplomatic engagement.