Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday brushed aside the controversy over his selection as the head of a multi-party delegation abroad on Operation Sindoor by the Narendra Modi government, saying "serving the country is everyone's right".
Talking to reporters here, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said: "The BJP government extended their invitation. I proudly said yes. I believe that serving the country is everyone's right. Since I've been invited, I have decided to go."
The Congress found itself on a sticky wicket after Union parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju ignored the nominees suggested by the party and picked Tharoor to head one of the seven all-party delegations to key partner countries to convey India's message of zero tolerance against terrorism.
However, Tharoor said the Congress and the central government should sort out the issue and asserted that there was no politics behind it.
"The controversy is between the BJP government and the Congress. It was the parliamentary affairs minister who called me up. I had informed my party about their invitation. Politics has prominence only when the country is there. We all witnessed the 88-hour-long war. I don't see politics in this issue. When the country is going through an unstable situation and a citizen's service is being sought, it should be fulfilled," he said.
Several Congress leaders in Kerala and outside have rallied behind Tharoor and blamed AICC general secretary (organisation) Jairam Ramesh for not handling the issue judiciously. They believe that Ramesh should not have revealed the list of nominees prepared by Rahul Gandhi. They maintain that the choice of names reflected poorly on the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha because Tharoor’s calibre in handling international issues, given his stint with the UN as deputy secretary-general, was well known.
“Without doubt, Tharoor fits the bill to lead India's diplomatic offensive against Pakistan on Operation Sindoor. Unfortunately, the AICC leadership cut a sorry figure by sidelining Tharoor from the official list of the Congress. It looks like Rahul is unaware of Tharoor heading the standing committee on external affairs. Moreover, Ramesh's humiliation of a senior leader like Tharoor was unwarranted... the BJP has exposed the chinks in the Congress," a senior Congress leader told The Telegraph on the condition of anonymity.