New Delhi: Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari, Anand Sharma, Amar Singh—Congress leaders who were members of multi-party delegations to world capitals after Operation Sindoor are not among the speakers the party has lined up for a debate on the issue that began in the Lok Sabha Monday.
Congress sources claimed that Tharoor was approached by the party to participate in the debate, but the Thiruvananthapuram MP expressed his unwillingness. On his part, Tharoor parried questions on the issue, saying “maun vrat, maun Vrat“, suggesting he is on a self-imposed vow of silence.
The party sources said Congress’s Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi had reached out to Tharoor based on directions from Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi. The objective, they said, was to deny Tharoor the opportunity to claim that the Congress prevented him from speaking.
In Tewari’s case on the contrary, the sources said, he approached the party to participate in the debate “but was not allowed to do so”.
Former Congress MP Salman Khurshid was also part of one of the global outreach delegations.
Those who have been picked by the Congress to speak include Gaurav Gogoi, who opened the debate from the Opposition side Monday. Others include Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Deepender Singh Hooda, Praniti Shinde, Saptagiri Ulaka, B.S. Ola, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Manickam Tagore and Shafi Parambil.
“The party had issued a whip to all its MPs to mark their attendance for the next three days and spell out its line on Operation Sindoor. Had Tharoor spoken and taken a different stand, he could have run the risk of attracting charges of violating the whip. He wants to speak on The Indian Ports Bill, 2025,” a Congress MP told ThePrint.
As the leader of a multi-party delegation, Tharoor had travelled to the United States, Panama, Guyana, Colombia and Brazil. He heaped praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his interventions, dismissed US President Donald Trump’s claim that he brokered the truce between India and Pakistan, thus deepening his rift with the Congress which accused him of crossing the “lakshman rekha”.
At a recent event in Kerala, Tharoor, while responding to a student’s question on his differences with the Congress, said, “As you know, if you’re following the news, a lot of people have been very critical of me because of the stand I have taken supporting our armed forces and our government and what happened recently in our country and on our borders. But I will stand my ground because I believe this is the right thing for the country.”
“Which is your first loyalty? To my mind, the nation comes first. Parties are a means of making the nation better,” he said.
In Rajya Sabha, Congress President and Leader of Opposition in the Upper House Mallikarjun Kharge will open the debate for the Opposition.
Senior Congress leader and former home minister P Chidambaram, who came under attack from the BJP Monday over his reported remarks that there is no proof that the Pahalgam attackers came from Pakistan, will also speak, along with Akhilesh Prasad Singh and Shaktisinh Gohil.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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