Super Premium Frequent Flier is in Argentina Today: Jairam Ramesh Takes Dig AT PM Modi

'The Super Premium Frequent Flier is in Argentina today. 3 down, 2 more to go. To Indians, Argentina instantly means Diego Armando Maradona and Lionel Messi. But there are three deeper connects as well,' Ramesh said in his post on X.

He recalled that Rabindranath Tagore spent time in Argentina in November 1924 at the invitation of Victoria Ocampo, a prominent literary figure. Tagore's works were already very well known. He and Ocampo developed a warm friendship which has been written about extensively by Tagore's biographers, with Ketaki Kushari Dyson having devoted an entire book to it.

He added,Tagore's collection of 52 lyrical poems called Purabi - published exactly a hundred years ago - was  dedicated to 'Vijaya', his name for Ocampo. In September 1968, Indira Gandhi met Ocampo in Buenos Aires and conferred on her the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature of Tagore's Visva-Bharati University, in which she had herself spent nine months beginning July 1934.

He further said that Jose Luis Borges, who got some of his initial breaks through Ocampo, was a titan of twentieth century Argentinian and Spanish literature. When he was seven years old in 1906, Borges had read Sir Edwin Arnold's The Light of Asia and that led him to read and explore the life of the Buddha even more. The impact of the Buddha is reflected in Borges's short stories, essays, poems, and lectures. 

Argentina issued these stamps in honour of PM Indira Gandhi in 1986 https://t.co/zwVwaTuw0P pic.twitter.com/t53usSE1hZ

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) July 5, 2025

He also recalled how Raul Prebisch was a very influential economist in the 1950s and 1960s especially. He helped establish the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, an organisation that earned its  place in world economic history as UNCTAD.

Ramesh said,Dr. Manmohan Singh had worked in UNCTAD in New York during Jan 1966-May 1969 and there is a lovely picture of him with his two daughters during this time. UNCTAD's second session had been held in New Delhi during Jan-March 1968--the first time a  developing country was hosting a major UN event.

The congress leader said that it was UNCTAD that propagated the idea of G77--the collective of developing countries that has become influential in global forums. The collective now has 133 developing countries. China does not consider itself as a formal member and so the collective is called G77 plus China. "Global South is another term now very much in use by Mr. Modi and the External Affairs Minister--this term too was propagated by UNCTAD, although it was first used by a British banker Oliver Franks way back in 1960",he added.