After P Chidambaram questioned the tangible benefits India has gained from BRICS meetings, BJP vice president Ram Madhav hit back at the senior Congress MP. Madhav also explained why India would have to play a balanced role in the new world order.
Borrowing from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s lexicon, senior BJP leader Ram Madhav castigated P Chidambaram for showing a “naaraz phupha (disgruntled uncle)” attitude after the veteran Congress MP questioned India’s gains from BRICS meetings. Speaking at India Today’s BRICS Roundtable 2026, Madhav asserted that India’s growing global influence was unsettling the opposition.
With India set to chair the fourth BRICS Summit in New Delhi, Chidambaram questioned the “tangible benefits” New Delhi had gained from such events. He said the last 2-3 BRICS summits have not delivered any concrete gains for India.
ON OPPOSITION CRITICISM ON BRICS
Hitting back at the former Union Minister, Madhav underlined that dismissing the relevance of such global forums reflected a lack of understanding of the contemporary global reality. He asserted that a new world order was on the horizon and India would have to play a balanced role.
“Inhi ko PM (Modi) calls naaraaz phupha (These are the people whom PM calls disgruntled uncles). When the UPA hosted BRICS summits, did anybody say what the benefit of it was?” Madhav said.
“To dismiss these forums as having no relevance is a complete lack of understanding of the contemporary global reality. It is surprising to have come from someone who served as foreign minister. This is naaraaz phupha attitude,” he further said.
Earlier this month, PM Modi introduced the “naaraaz phupha” term in his dictionary to mock his critics and the opposition. While the Prime Minister did not single out any opposition leader, the expression has sparked a wide range of satirical videos and memes.
‘OLD WORLD ORDER DEAD’
Madhav, an old RSS hand who was recently elevated as the BJP vice president, said that with “old big power politics” on the wane, multilateral groupings like BRICS hold much importance
“BRICS is a grouping of 11 countries. These are not small countries. India, China and Indonesia account for 45% of the world’s population. These three countries have the highest growth rates,” he said.
The two-day BRICS Summit, being held under the shadow of a rapidly changing global order, will bring key leaders like Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin under one roof.
Madhav said the timing of the summit was crucial as the global order was undergoing a major transition. He said traditional power equations were giving way to multiple smaller groupings and new centres of influence.
“We are entering into a totally different world,” Madhav said. However, he argued that India was relatively well placed because of its ability to maintain relationships with competing powers and engagement with groupings like SCO, BRICS, Quad and BIMSTEC.
“In the new world order, one cannot survive being just part of a fixed arrangement. India’s leadership understands that,” he said.
Madhav argued that the United States’ influence was declining, giving way to a more uncertain global order. “The US is in self-destruction mode. Its influence is waning across the world,” he said, predicting that several minilaterals like BRICS would emerge in the future.
“The old order is dead. The new order is yet to take shape,” Madhav said, stressing that India would have to maintain a balanced approach guided by the principle of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.
