Kharge, Rahul not invited to Putin banquet: Congress

Congress on Friday said Leaders of Opposition (LoP) Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi have not been invited to the banquet for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and took a swipe at its own MP Shashi Tharoor for accepting the invite.

Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said, “There has been speculation whether the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha have been invited for tonight’s official dinner in honour of President Putin. The two LoPs have not been invited.”

Congress’s media and publicity department head, Pawan Khera, accused the Government of breaking protocols daily and not believing in democratic principles. “There is no invite to both the LoPs, (Mallikarjun) Kharge and (Rahul) Gandhi. This comes as a surprise but I don’t think we should be surprised. This Government is known to be breaching all protocols. What else to say, ask the Government,” Khera said.

Asked about party MP Tharoor getting invited to the banquet and accepting the invitation, Khera said, “Ask Tharoor. All of us who are in the party, if our leaders don’t get invited and we get invited, we need to question our own conscience and listen to our conscience. Politics has been played in inviting or not inviting people, which in itself is questionable and those who accept such an invite is also questionable,” Khera said.

Earlier, Tharoor said there was a time when the chairman of the external affairs committee was routinely invited but that practice seems to have stopped from some years ago.

“It has been resumed, I have been invited, yes. I will definitely go,” the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs said.

On the LoPs reportedly not getting an invite, Tharoor said, “I don’t know on what basis invitations were sent. I think the custom that was usually used to be followed was for a wide representation. Certainly, I remember in the olden days, they used to invite not only the LoPs, (but) various other cross-sections of representatives of different parties. It conveys a good impression.”

“I don't know the basis (of invitation), this is all done by the Government, by the protocol, by the Rashtrapati Bhawan, what do I know. All I can say is I have honoured to have been invited. Of course I will go,” Tharoor told reporters in the Parliament House complex.

Rahul, on Thursday, had alleged that the Government tells visiting foreign dignitaries not to meet the Leader of the Opposition due to its “insecurity”. His remarks had come hours ahead of Putin’s two-day visit to India.

The Congress leader had said it is a tradition that visiting foreign dignitaries meet the LoP but Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Ministry of External Affairs were not following this norm.