The political row over Congress MP P Chidambaram's remarks on the BRICS Summit has taken a fresh turn, with party MP Shashi Tharoor breaking ranks to back the event and calling it proof of India's "diplomatic convening power”.Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. (ANI)Chidambaram on Tuesday stoked controversy when he questioned the tangible benefits India gained from such events. His remarks came under sharp criticisms from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which later raised questions on the Congress’ approach to diplomacy.Speaking to news agency PTI on Thursday, Tharoor said: “First of all, we're providing an important platform for the Global South. You know, the Global South is over 100 countries, but here we have 11 key players from the Global South who collectively represent much of the diversity of views, as well as the range of countries that we are essentially chairing on this particular occasion. This grouping, the 11 BRICS countries, represents a majority of the world's population and 41 per cent of global GDP.”He added: “It's not a small matter; it's something that has to be taken very seriously by the rest of the world.”The Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram said the BRICS Summit is a “matter of great prestige” for India that is hosting the event this year.“Secondly, of course, having a dozen heads of state and government, not only members of BRICS but also some observers coming at presidential and prime ministerial level, is a matter of great prestige for us. It shows a certain diplomatic convening power, which has value in and of itself on the global stage,” he said.The 18th summit is scheduled to be held at Bharat Mandapam in the Capital during the weekend, on the theme 'Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’.On Wednesday, Chidambaram said India is part of several multilateral groupings, including BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), G20 and QUAD, but questioned what concrete benefits the country has received from them.“I don't know how many Presidents and how many Prime Ministers are coming. I don't think the last two or three BRICS summits have resulted in tangible benefits or tangible results,” he told news agency ANI.“In fact, we are part of BRICS, we are part of SCO, we are part of G20, and we are part of QUAD. What benefits are we getting out of that? I can't see. In the last two or three summits, I didn't see any benefits. Earlier, the BRICS Summits resulted in some tangible benefits,” he added.