New Delhi: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has pulled out its MP Yusuf Pathan from multi-party delegations on Operation Sindoor to world capitals, saying that the Modi government has unilaterally named the Baharampur MP without consulting it.
Apart from the TMC, the Congress also stepped up its criticism of the Modi government for politicising Operation Sindoor and unilaterally selecting leaders from the party.
“How can the Union Government decide on the representative of Trinamool? How can the BJP decide which representative the Trinamool will send, or the DMK or the Congress will send? The Centre should instead have had discussions about composition of delegations with political parties,” TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee told the media Monday at the Kolkata airport.
“The Centre or the Union Govt cannot decide who will go from the party unilaterally…Which member of TMC, DMK, Congress, AAP and Samajwadi Party will go in the delegation should be decided by the party itself. They (the BJP) can decide about who will be members from the BJP, not from others. The practice is when any parliamentary delegation goes anywhere, the Lok Sabha Speaker or the Rajya Sabha chairperson seek names from parties. This was not followed in this case,” he said.
The TMC stands with the government on combating terrorism and it will stand with the government shoulder to shoulder, he asserted.
“We do not have a problem with any delegation going anywhere…(But) which member of our party will go in the delegation is the decision of our party. The Trinamool is not boycotting the meeting. The Trinamool is the only party which has not politicised the matter of national security,” Abhishek said.
But, he did not elaborate whether some other party representative would replace Pathan.
Later in the day, Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose posted a video of Mamata Banerjee in which the TMC supremo asserted that the government unilaterally cannot decide the members of all-party delegations.
“Foreign policy is entirely the domain of the government and it must bear full responsibility for our foreign relations. @AITCofficial stands shoulder to shoulder in total solidarity with our armed forces for effective long term deterrence against Pakistan- based terrorism. The nation, the flag, & our national resolve belong to all of India and to every proud citizen,” she posted on ‘X’.
Also Read: Assam panchayat polls: How BJP recovered lost ground & stumped Congress in stronghold Jorhat
Congress steps up attack as well
On Sunday, Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh had told ANI that the party had sent the names of Anand Sharma, Gaurav Gogoi, Nasir Hussain and Raja Brar but the government went on to add four more names.
While only Sharma made the cut, the Modi government had contacted Congress’s Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari, Amar Singh, and Salman Khurshid.
Like Trinamool’s Abhishek, Ramesh reiterated that there should have been a discussion with the party leaders.
“That is a lie — LIE — absolute lie. He had a conversation in the morning of May 16 with the Congress president and Mr Rahul Gandhi and in pursuance of that conversation the latter wrote to Mr Rijiju suggesting four names,” Ramesh told PTI Monday to a query on Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rijiju’s reported remarks that the government never asked the Congress to give names.
“At no point of time, the Modi government did the Congress the courtesy of saying that, ‘look these are the four names we have selected’, what do you have to say about them’,” Ramesh said, accusing the BJP and the prime minister of indulging in “cheap politics”.
Earlier, Ramesh had asked its MPs that they should listen to their conscience and contribute in the delegations.
BJP senior leader Shahnawaz Hussain sought to play down the objections raised by the two opposition parties. “It is the team of the country, Yusuf Pathan is also there, he has represented India, now we have to expose Pakistan, tell about Operation Sindoor. There is no controversy, the statements by Congress and TMC are unfortunate, now that the team has been made, everybody should unite, and put India’s side to the world (sic),” he told PTI.
Since last week when the Modi government decided to send seven delegations to represent the country on a high-level diplomatic mission on international platforms, the BJP had attacked the Congress for not nominating Tharoor and Tewari.
Both the leaders have agreed to be part of the delegations formed to undertake global outreach on Operation Sindoor and Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Tharoor will lead a 10-member all-party delegation to the US to speak about the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Sushil Modi died untimely due to ill treatment by ‘senior party leader’, says BJP’s Ashwini Choubey