Congress to be part of multi-party delegation against terrorism, Kharge to nominate MPs
NEW DELHI: As India is set to send multi-party delegations to various important countries to exert diplomatic pressure on Pakistan, Congress on Friday said that it would join the delegation, and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge will decide which MPs will represent the team.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju has already contacted Kharge on the matter. “He will depute party leaders accordingly," said Ramesh, adding that Congress has always prioritised national interest.
“We have heard that India is to send delegations of MPs from all political parties to world capitals to brief different countries on the recent India-Pakistan conflict. Keeping national interest paramount, Congress will join the delegation of multi-party MPs. If we get an invitation to join the delegation, the Congress party will join. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju has spoken to the Congress President, and he will depute party leaders,” he said.
Ramesh further said that the government is yet to accept its consistent demand for an all-party meeting chaired by the PM and a special session of Parliament to deliberate on the aftermath of the conflict.
“We demanded an all-party meeting. Though an all-party meeting was held twice, PM Modi was not present at the meetings. Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi wrote letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to convene a special session of the Parliament, but that also did not happen. The BJP is doing politics in the name of Operation Sindoor. However, for us, nation comes first,” he said, asserting that the Opposition has demonstrated solidarity with the government after the Pahalgam attack.
It was learnt that the government is considering Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari to be part of the teams that will be travelling to important countries. Interestingly, the Congress leadership has distanced itself from Tharoor’s public comments endorsing the Modi government’s handling of the India-Pakistan conflict and US President Trump’s intervention in announcing the ceasefire.
Though Congress questioned third-party intervention in the issue, Manish Tewari maintained that third-party mediation between India and Pakistan has been a reality since 1990, and cited several instances even during the UPA regime.
Speaking to this paper, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha said that his party will join the multi-party delegation if it receives an invitation from the government.
“This initiative is important. We have to make our point to the world that we are the victims. We have been facing this historically. We need to remind other countries about it. India has traditionally supported the oppressed all over the world, and the world should know about it,” he said.
Opposition leaders also point out that the UPA and NDA governments in the past, has made such diplomatic measures to garner international support during crucial situations.
In 1994, the then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao deputed a team comprising opposition leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Farooq Abdullah, Salman Khurshid, and India’s then ambassador to the UN Hamid Ansari to a UN session in Geneva to present India’s case on the Kashmir problem and to defeat a Pakistan resolution to censure New Delhi. After the Mumbai attack in 2008, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent a multi-party delegation to various countries with dossiers on Pakistan’s links to the terror attacks.
Earlier, independent Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal suggested that the government send out delegations of the ruling and Opposition MPs to exert diplomatic pressure on Pakistan.
Sibal, who was a part of one of the delegations in the past, also called for delegations of the ruling and Opposition MPs to be sent to countries such as Africa, the US, Europe, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and South America, to put "diplomatic pressure".
"We should tell all major nations that have trade with Pakistan that they cannot come to our market if they have trade with Pakistan. What the US does to other nations, do it, and the country will stand with you," the former Congress leader said.
"We should present this point in every diplomatic initiative. The United Nations should create pressure. A resolution must be passed in the Security Council, and we should see whether China supports it or goes against it. We have to take these diplomatic initiatives," Sibal said.
