Jaishankar rebuts Rahul Gandhi's allegations on US visit for Trump inauguration

External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Monday rebuffed leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi's claim that he had visited the United States in December to get an invitation for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the inauguration ceremony of President Donald Trump.

Jaishankar alleged that Rahul Gandhi is deliberately spreading falsehoods about his visit to the United States in December.

"Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi deliberately spoke a falsehood about my visit to the US in December 2024. I went to meet the Secretary of State and NSA of the Biden Administration. Also to chair a gathering of our consuls general. During my stay, the incoming NSA-designate met with me," Jaishankar wrote on X.


"At no stage was an invitation in respect of the PM discussed. It is common knowledge that our PM does not attend such events. In fact, India is generally represented by special envoys. Rahul Gandhi's lies may be intended politically. But they damage the nation abroad," he said.

Gandhi, speaking in the Lok Sabha during the Motion of Thanks on the President's Address, claimed that Jaishankar visited the US "multiple times" to request an invitation for Modi to Trump's inauguration ceremony.

"When we talk to the US, we would not send our foreign minister multiple times to request an invitation for the prime minister to the coronation," Gandhi said in the Lok Sabha.

"If we had a production system and if we were working on technologies, the US President would come here and invite the prime minister," the LoP said.