New Delhi [India], July 2 : As Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for a five-nation visit and will start with Ghana on July 2, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh took a sharp jab at him, calling him the "Super Premium Frequent Flier PM" in a post on X.
Ramesh had taken the same jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, alleging that PM Modi is running away from national issues.
He recalled that Ghana's iconic leader, Kwame Nkrumah, who led the country to independence in 1957, shared a personal and ideological friendship with Nehru that predated Ghana's freedom.
"Till the mid-60s, Ghanaian and indeed African politics were dominated by Kwame Nkrumah, who is an iconic figure. He shared a very warm relationship with Jawaharlal Nehru, which long pre-dated Ghana's independence in March 1957," Ramesh wrote.
Highlighting the legacy of this partnership, Ramesh pointed out that a prominent road in Ghana's capital, Accra--where India House is located--is named after Nehru, while in New Delhi, a road in the diplomatic enclave bears the name Kwame Nkrumah Marg.
He further elaborated on Nkrumah's state visit to India from December 22, 1958, to January 8, 1959, which included stops in major cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Nangal, Chandigarh, Jhansi, Agra, Bengaluru, Mysuru, and Pune. "He spent five days in Bengaluru and Mysuru alone," Ramesh wrote, underlining the depth of that engagement.
During this visit, Nkrumah toured several key national institutions such as the Trombay Atomic Energy Establishment, the National Physical Laboratory, the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, the Bhakra Nangal Dam, and the National Defence Academy.
"One offshoot of this extended visit was Indian assistance for the establishment of the Ghanaian Air Force," Ramesh noted.
The Congress leader also cited Nehru's foresight in inaugurating the Department of African Studies at Delhi University in 1955, even before the wave of decolonisation had swept the continent.
He quoted Nehru's speech from the occasion, "It is so obviously necessary and desirable for people in India to study Africa, and not merely, as the Vice Chancellor said, because it is there...But you ignore the study of Africa at your peril....It is of the most urgent importance for us to understand Africa...and her problems and her people more particularly... When I think of Africa, many ideas come to me...I have a tremendous feeling of atonement of humanity...the way Africa and the people of Africa have been treated for hundreds of years, a kind of feeling that the rest of humanity would perform prayashchit for it."
On Tuesday, sharing an X post, Jairam Ramesh wrote, "When the going gets tough, the self-styled toughs get going. The Super Premium Frequent Flier PM is off on a 5-nation, 8-day jaunt. He is running away from at least 4 issues that are agitating the nation."
Listing the national issues, Ramesh targeted PM Modi over the ethnic violence in Manipur."1. Manipur, which he has not visited ever since the double engine in the state got derailed and ever since normal life in the state has been destroyed," he wrote on X.