Assam CM hails Delhi BRICS summit as BJP hits back at opposition critics

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has mounted a fierce defence of India’s role in the BRICS alliance, using the eve of the New Delhi summit to showcase the country’s rising global weight while turning the event into a political weapon against the domestic opposition.

Speaking in Guwahati, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma called India’s chairmanship of the bloc a "unique achievement". He argued that the group of emerging economies has a "historical responsibility" to step forward at a time of severe global instability, pointing specifically to the security of trade and energy corridors.

"With this crisis in the entire world, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz and all, BRICS has a lot of historical responsibility to lead the world," Sarma said. He expressed confidence that the summit would yield a concrete peace and prosperity plan under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The 18th BRICS Summit, which begins on Saturday at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, comes amid heightened geopolitical tensions that have disrupted global supply chains.

Yet the diplomatic showpiece has also reignited domestic political hostilities. The BJP’s national spokesperson, Sambit Patra, released a sharp video message accusing the Congress party and its allies of trying to manufacture a "negative atmosphere" around the event. The attack followed criticisms from Congress, which had questioned what India actually stands to gain from hosting the summit.

To counter the critics, Patra dug into the economic archives of 2011 and 2012 to contrast India's current position with its standing under the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) administration.

He pointed to global financial reviews from that era, including assessments by Goldman Sachs, which had labelled India the least attractive of the BRIC nations in terms of investment valuation. At the time, analysts warned that high inflation, stalling reforms, and a weak currency were threatening to make India the weak link in the bloc, with some even suggesting Indonesia might replace it.

"Probably for the first time in a decade... BRIC is weakening and the ‘I’ in it turning shaky," Patra said, quoting an article from September 2011.

He argued that the country's transformation since then has made the opposition uncomfortable. "Today, some members of the opposition and the Congress party are unable to digest India's progress because India is moving forward," Patra said, declaring that the "I" in BRICS, representing India's 1.4 billion people, is now one of its strongest pillars.