The government should practice in India what it preaches to the world, Congress leader P Chidambaram said on Monday, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed democracy and freedom of thought at a G7 meet. Prime Minister Modi on Sunday said India is a natural ally for the G7 and its partners in defending democracy, freedom of thought, and liberty from a host of threats stemming from authoritarianism, terrorism, violent extremism, and economic coercion.

''PM Modi's speech at the G7 Outreach meeting is inspiring as well as ironic. The Modi government should practice in India what it preaches to the world,'' Chidambaram tweeted in response.

He added that it was ''sad'' the prime minister was the only guest not physically present at the outreach meeting. ''Ask yourself why? Because India is an outlier as far as the fight against Covid 19 is concerned. We are the most infected and least vaccinated country (as a proportion of the population),'' the former Union minister said. The prime minister made a virtual address at an outreach session of a summit of the Group of Seven (G7) richest democracies held in Cornwall in Britain.