'Rubio has summoned his employee to Mumbai' : Rahul Gandhi questions Modi over Rubio's meeting with MEA officials

Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday shared a post on X, questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi over US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's meeting with Indian government officials in Mumbai next week, claiming that officials in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) were in a state of confusion.

"Mr Rubio has summoned his employee to Mumbai. Modi ji, your officials in the External Affairs Ministry are confused about what's going on. You might want to explain. Unless, of course, you want me to," wrote Mr Gandhi in a post on the social media platform X.

US envoy Sergio Gor announced on Thursday at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is expected to travel to Mumbai to meet Rubio next week. Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh called it extraordinary that a foreign diplomat announced the domestic itinerary of India's External Affairs Minister.

Also Read: Trump says Republicans face equally tough fight in House and Senate midterms

Ramesh objected to the conduct, questioning the External Affairs Minister’s “tryst” with Mr Rubio. “It is also not wholly surprising to hear him say that Mr Rubio will be meeting Govt of India officials in Mumbai."

"But what is quite extraordinary is his statement that ‘we expect the Minister Dr Jaishankar to be joining us there along with other individuals’”.

“Since when has the announcement of India’s Minister of External Affairs meetings within India been outsourced to somebody other than the official spokesperson of the MEA? India gets to know from the US Ambassador just as it first got to know from Mr Rubio himself on the evening of May 10, 2025 that Operation Sindoor had been halted.”

Rubio will travel to Gujarat next week to visit the Reliance unit at Jamnagar and will later meet officials of the External Affairs Ministry in Mumbai.