Rahul Gandhi meets a group of diplomats from the G-20 nations.
Senior leaders of the Congress, including party chief Rahul Gandhi, his mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today met a group of diplomats from the G-20 nations and neighbouring countries to share its vision and the plans it has for the coming Lok Sabha elections.
"We had a very meaningful meeting and discussed issues of mutual concern... We are united in the fight against terrorism," senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said after the meeting.
Rahul Gandhi had indicated it would be a free and frank discussion on various issues that the diplomats are concerned about. One was likely to be the February 14 terror attack in Pulwama and the subsequent politics surrounding it.
Last month, after the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama, the Congress had to cancel a scheduled lunch with the G20 envoys.
The Congress had cancelled all its official programmes to show solidarity with the 40 soldiers who lost their lives when a Jaish-e Mohammad suicide bomber drove and explosive-laden vehicle into a convoy of the Central Reserve Police Force.
"The BJP and the government must understand that the Congress has been in the forefront of fighting terrorism... they don't need to reach us patriotism," Mr Sharma said.
Most of the diplomats, including one from the US, said it was a good meeting. "We hope they will do this meeting for other diplomatic countries too," said the Dean of Diplomatic Services.
While arranging meetings between opposition leaders and visiting diplomats has been a tradition, opposition leaders have earlier complained that the NDA government has often skipped this convention.
But since the Pulwama attack, the government has been on a major diplomatic initiative to isolate Pakistan in the international community. The G20 is the international financial forum of 19 nations and the European Union.