"We Decide Who Goes": Trinamool Says Won't Send Diplomatic Outreach Nominees
Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has said her party will skip the all-party international delegation on Operation Sindoor, since the Centre had not consulted her party before naming three of its leaders as the country's representatives. Ms Banerjee, however, said this is not a boycott and she would reconsider the matter if the government reaches out.
"We will definitely send a representative if they inform us. Why wouldn't we? There is no point of controversy here. We are fully with the government," Ms Banerjee told reporters today as she headed for the hill town of Darjeeling to escape the heat.
"We have made it clear that we are endorsing all steps taken by the Union government to combat terrorism, safeguarding the country's sovereignty, and protecting the national interest... If any delegation is going, which I think should go, my party can only decide who to assign for the delegation. The Union government cannot unilaterally decide," said Abhishek Banerjee, the number two in the party after Ms Banerjee.
Mr Banerjee, however, attended the foreign ministry's briefing in Delhi for leaders who are part of the seven delegations the government is sending out. So did Trinamool's Sagarika Ghose, who is also part of another delegation.
The matter apparently boiled over after cricketer-turned-politician Yusuf Pathan was named by the Centre, leaving aside his more senior party colleagues. He was supposed to be part of a delegation led by Janata Dal (United) MP Sanjay Jha that is set to go to Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and Singapore.
Mr Pathan opted out, leading to a BJP attack on Trinamool, accusing it of "partisan politics".
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the BJP's BJP co-incharge for West Bengal Amit Malviya said, "It sends a subliminal message that Mamata Banerjee and her party are unwilling to speak out against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism".
"What is worse is that while a caucus of senior party apparatchiks prevailed, likely because they were not part of the delegation, other senior TMC MPs are now sending feelers to be included," he added.
Besides Trinamool, the Congress has raised similar objections after only one of the four leaders they named got picked by the Centre.
The Centre also named three other Congress leaders who were not recommended by the party.
The Congress list included Anand Sharma, Gaurav Gogoi, Nasir Hussain and Raja Brar -- of whom only Anand Sharma got accepted. The Centre's list included former diplomat Shashi Tharoor, Amar Singh and Manish Tewari.
Calling the Centre's move "mischievous" and politically motivated, the Congress, however, said it would allow the leaders to go in "national interest".
"The Congress party believes that national interest is paramount... Let the MPs go... we will not stop them. We will not boycott this delegation. We do not politicise it," said senior party leader and its communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh.
Following Operation Sindoor, the government has taken a huge initiative of sending teams of leaders -- cutting across party lines -- to key nations to brief them and explain India's "collective resolve on terrorism".
The delegations are being led by Baijayant Panda, Ravi Shankar Prasad of BJP, Sanjay Kumar Jha of Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United, Shrikant Shinde of the Eknath Sinde faction of Shiv Sena, Shashi Tharoor, DMK's Kanimozhi and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar's) Supriya Sule. The delegations will visit 32 nations and the European Union's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
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