G20 Summit 2023: Congress questions restrictions in Delhi

"This shows a preference for control and not management. Shutting down a city shows insecurity. We have not seen this before," said Congress leader JP Aggarwal. Reports ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri

New Delhi: As Delhi started gearing up for the G20 Summit amid traffic restrictions and a tight security cover on Thursday, Congress leaders questioned such regulations and pointed out that such dos and don'ts were not imposed earlier when big international events took place in the national capital.

Former Lok Sabha MP from Delhi and senior Congress leader JP Aggarwal said the traffic restrictions for the G20 showed a tendency to control and not manage.

“This shows a preference for control and not management. Shutting down a city shows insecurity. We have not seen this before. Offices are shut for three days and people are finding it difficult to go to work. People are complaining as they have been affected by the traffic restrictions. If they somehow manage to leave Delhi, entering the national capital would be another problem. During the years I was an MP, several international events took place in Delhi like a conclave of African nations, the visit of the then United States President Barack Obama and before him of the then US President Bill Clinton. The NAM Summit took place in 1983 which was bigger than the G20 summit,” Agarwal told ETV Bharat.

"If imposing traffic restrictions would make us a world power, I would say it should be done every day," he quipped. According to All India Congress Committee (AICC) functionary Abhishek Dutt, the traffic restrictions showed that trust was somewhere lacking between the city residents and the government.

“Whatever the government has decided, we are with it. There are traffic restrictions but there are also passes in some cases. However, I feel that somewhere down the line the trust of the people in the government is missing,” Dutt told ETV Bharat.

“No one will come and create problems and people behave themselves during such special events. For instance, we had to take out a pad yatra in the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) area today but we postponed it. Our new state unit chief had to take charge but again it had to be deferred. Why, to respect the big event,” he said.

Recalling the visit of the then US President Donald Trump in 2020, the AICC leader said, “When President Trump was in India, I don't think such restrictions were there. In fact, when he was in Delhi, the riots broke out in the city pointing to an intelligence failure. Such restrictions are understandable in a small city which lacks proper infrastructure but I have never seen such a control in a big city like Delhi.”

The Congress social media team circulated a video clip on various platforms saying restrictions on the movement of the train, metro, closing down fuel pumps, schools, and colleges was akin to a mini-lock down, which resulted in hassles for the ordinary residents.

There was a difference in running the country and campaigning for elections, the Congress said in its video noting that a mini-lock down was not the solution to handling the G20 conclave when former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had successfully hosted the 7th NAM Summit in New Delhi in 1983.

The NAM summit was attended by over 70 international leaders and journalists, the video said and noted that no such traffic restrictions were imposed on the city residents back then.