'No need to hide India's reality': Rahul Gandhi as G20 gets underway in Delhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is in Brussels, on Saturday said that there is no need for India to hide its reality from the guests. His remarks comes as the G20 gets underway in Delhi.

"GOI is hiding poor people and animals...There is no need to hide India's reality from our guests," Gandhi posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Earlier, the party had shared a video of coolie camp, a slum in Vasant Vihar, Delhi, which is hidden from the public view ahead of the G20 summit.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also attacked the prime minister over the matter.

"G20 is intended to be a productive gathering of the major world economies, aimed at dealing with global problems in a cooperative manner. President Putin may have stayed away, but Prince Potemkin has been in full display with slums being either covered up or demolished, rendering thousands homeless. Stray animals have been cruelly rounded up and mistreated, only to burnish the PM's image," Ramesh said in a statement.

The opposition party had also shared videos of cruelty towards animals and stray dogs as well.

Gandhi is on a European tour starting with Belgium. While talking to the media, Gandhi had said that there is an increasing discrimination and violence in India and there is "full-scale assault" on democratic institutions.

On Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge not invited to the G20 presidential dinner, Gandhi said that it reveals the thinking from the government that it did not value the leader of 60 per cent of India's population.

Gandhi also added that G20 is an important conversation and it's good that India is hosting it.

He said that minorities and many other communities including Dalit, tribal and lower caste are under attack in India.

“India has every right to have a relationship with whoever it wants the Opposition, by and large, would agree with India’s current position on the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” he said.