‘When you make intelligent smiles…’: BJP, Congress trade jabs after ‘Pope meeting God’ jibe at PM Modi

The Congress and BJP have continued to trade jabs over the former's social media posts allegedly mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with Pope Francis at the G7 Summit in Italy last week.

In its latest war of words, the Congress posted on social media site X (formerly known as Twitter), sarcastically wishing "Modi ka parivar" a "better luck next time".

War-of-Words Continues

Prior to this, in a now-deleted post, the grand old party had posted a picture on X of Modi with the Pope, and captioned it sarcastically as: "Finally, the Pope got a chance to meet God!"

The jab was met with criticism from BJP in Kerala, particularly BJP state chief K Surendran, who in his own post alleged that the Congress X handle "appears to be managed by radical Islamists or urban Naxals".

Surendran claimed that AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal was aware of these posts and questioned whether Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi endorsed them.

"The @INCIndia Kerala "X" handle, seemingly run by radical Islamists or Urban Naxals, continues to post derogatory and humiliating content against nationalistic leaders. Now, it has even stooped to mocking the respected Pope and the Christian community. It's certain that the AICC General Secretary from Kerala, @kcvenugopalmp, is aware of this. The question is, what are @RahulGandhi and @kharge's interests in supporting this?" Surendran wrote on X.

Modi Invites Pope Francis to India

On Friday, PM Modi invited Pope Francis to visit India and expressed admiration for the pontiff's dedication to serving people. The two leaders met warmly at the G7 Summit's outreach session in Italy, where they joined other world leaders to discuss topics such as Artificial Intelligence, Energy, Africa, and the Mediterranean.

“Met Pope Francis on the sidelines of the @G7 Summit. I admire his commitment to serve people and make our planet better. Also invited him to visit India,” said Modi in a post on X.

The 87-year-old head of the worldwide Catholic Church was taken around the table in a wheelchair to greet each of the world leaders gathered at the summit venue.

(With inputs from PTI)