Congress in open row over BRICS as Tharoor counters Chidambaram, BJP pounces

A disagreement inside the Congress over the BRICS summit in New Delhi this weekend has spilled into the open, with two senior party figures taking opposing positions and the ruling BJP moving quickly to amplify the divide.

The exchange began when former Union finance minister P Chidambaram questioned what India stands to gain from hosting the gathering. He said he was unconcerned about the number of presidents and prime ministers arriving, adding that the last two or three BRICS summits had not produced tangible benefits or results. He also noted that India belongs to several overlapping groupings, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the G20 and the Quad, and asked what each had delivered for the country's economy and national security.

Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor offered a markedly different reading. He argued that the presence of leaders such as Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian underlined India's diplomatic reach. In his view, hosting the summit is a matter of considerable prestige and demonstrates a convening power that carries value on its own.

Tharoor also framed the summit as a platform for the Global South, describing the 11 participating players as representing much of the diversity of views among developing nations. He said the grouping covers a majority of the world's population and 41 per cent of global GDP, and that it should be taken seriously by the rest of the world. At the same time, he acknowledged the difficulty of building consensus among partners who differ sharply, particularly over the wars in Ukraine and Iran and their effect on the global economy. That difficulty was on display in May, when Iran and the UAE held up a joint declaration at a meeting of BRICS foreign ministers.

The BJP seized on the contrast. Party spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari posted on X on Friday morning, casting the episode as the Congress exposing itself and claiming that a party MP had laid bare internal opposition to BRICS.

The friction between Tharoor and his party is not new. Ties have been strained since he accepted a place in government delegations to friendly and partner nations after Operation Sindoor, India's military response to the April 2025 terror attack in Pahalgam. The Congress, which was sharply critical of the government's handling of the attack and the response, viewed his participation as a breach of the party line.

Further rows followed, including over his praise for the Prime Minister in a newspaper article in June 2025 and, in August 2026, over his remark that established parties would cease to be relevant unless they listened to new voices. Tharoor has consistently maintained that his comments signal neither discontent with the Congress nor any intention of joining the BJP, describing his praise for the Prime Minister during the Moscow leg of the Operation Sindoor delegation as a statement of national unity rather than a political defection. Those clarifications have not quieted the tensions, which have resurfaced at intervals whenever he strikes a note distinct from the party's position.