Actor Rishi Kapoor took to Twitter to troll centre-right thinker Sudheendra Kulkarni, who was among the handful of Indians, besides Beijing-based Indian journalists, present at the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) forum, which concluded on Monday.
Kulkarni, chairperson of the Mumbai-based Observer Research Foundation, had criticised India’s decision not to participate at the forum,China’s grand show of economic might and growing strategic heft, following sovereignty concerns over the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
“Whosoever has advised the PM, has given a very, very bad advice,” Kulkarni had said, drawing the Bollywood actor’s attention.
Kapoor wrote from his Twitter handle: “Sudheendra Kulkarni! Not Ink but all Paint manufactures await you arrival from Beijing. Await your arrival!.”
Major western countries did not send heads of states to the forum but were represented by high-level delegations.
{{/usCountry}}Major western countries did not send heads of states to the forum but were represented by high-level delegations.
{{/usCountry}}The US, South Korea and Japan, not known for happy ties with China, too sent delegations; even a reclusive North Korean government dispatched two representatives though they remained suitably unobtrusive on the first day of the two-day forum.
Kulkarni had said that India could have used the forum to express its concerns.
“India has isolated itself by not participating at any level in the BRF. India has concerns and reservations and these are legitimate ones. And it could have expressed many of the things it has put out in the official statement by coming here and making its point on the forum as some of the participants made in the morning in an oblique way of course,” he said.
“But by staying away, India has isolated itself because today at the BRF, practically the entire world is here. Including the US and Japan which have serious reservations of China,” the actor said.