New Delhi, May 17 (IANS) Reiterating its demand for an all-party meeting and a special session of Parliament on Operation Sindoor, the Congress on Saturday criticised attempts to politicise the proposed delegation visits by MPs to foreign countries, describing it as the government’s afterthought on realising that its narrative has failed.

Congress general secretary-communications Jairam Ramesh questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence over US President Donald Trump’s remark that he had mediated the ceasefire between India and Pakistan.

He referred to Trump’s tactic of dangling the carrot of trade as an allurement to end the war. “Operation Sindoor was stopped for trade,” Ramesh remarked, while referring to Trump’s claims.

The Congress leader also suspected the government’s intentions behind sending the all-party MPs’ delegation to different countries to put forth India’s point of view on the issue of the Pahalgam terror attack and the subsequent developments

Observing that the decision to send all-party MPs to different countries was a diversionary tactic, he said, this was sheer opportunism as the government had lost the narrative.

The party asserted that the visit of the all-party MPs’ delegation to different countries must not be politicised as the country remains one and united in its fight against terrorism and teaching Pakistan a lesson.

Maintaining that the Congress supports sending all-party delegation to different countries, he said, the MPs must talk about terrorism, which is the main issue and not Kashmir, as the US President is trying to suggest.

Replying to a question about the nomination of MPs from his party for the delegation, the Congress general secretary said that the government was playing games on a serious and sensitive matter.

“While the Congress is playing by the rules, the other party (the BJP) is targeting the bodyline,” he remarked, drawing parallels with cricket where bodyline bowling is considered against the rules.

He said the Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju had spoken to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and asked for the names of four party MPs.

Without naming Shashi Tharoor, he said the Congress was surprised by the names included in the delegation, which had not been recommended by it.

Ramesh said the party had nominated Anand Sharma, a former union minister and three-time MP; Gaurav Gogoi, Deputy Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha; Syed Naseer Hussain, RS member; and Amarinder Singh Raja ‘Warring’ Brar, LS member. He said the party gave the names with sincere intention and not with any malicious mindset.

He observed, it is highly probable that the BJP had already decided about the names of the MPs for the delegation and had talked to Kharge and Rahul Gandhi merely as a formality.

Ramesh reiterated the party’s demand for holding an all-party meeting and calling a special session of the Parliament to discuss the sensitive issue.

He said the country needs to reaffirm and reiterate the February 22, 1994, unanimous resolution of the Parliament seeking to get back the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Besides, he added, important issues like the developments in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack, challenges posed by Pakistan and China, and the relationship with the US need to be discussed in the special session of Parliament.

He also demanded that the Prime Minister should call all the Chief Ministers from across the country for the scheduled meeting on May 25, and not just the Chief Ministers of states ruled by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The Congress General Secretary recalled 1971 when former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi stood up to the US pressure and told President Nixon that he could do what he wanted, she would do whatever was in the interest of India.

–IANS

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