The ruling BJP’s decision to name Congress MP Shashi Tharoor as one of the seven leaders of the all-party delegations to plead India’s case before the world on the war against terror has served two purposes.
First, it has exposed the rift within the Congress. Tharoor, the Thiruvananthapuram MP and the head of the parliamentary committee on external affairs, was not among the Opposition party’s choice.
Second, with Rahul Gandhi excluding himself from the names proposed by his party, the BJP could once again attack him is a reluctant politician.
Rahul Gandhi’s “foresight” on matters of national importance has often been highlighted by the Congress on its social media platform including in foreign policy.
The Union government had reached out to the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who is the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, and Rahul, the Opposition leader in the Lok Sabha, on Friday morning requesting for names of four MPs.
By afternoon, the party had suggested four names to Kiren Rijiju, the parliamentary affairs minister.
According to Jairam Ramesh, the Congress general secretary in-charge of communication, the four names suggested by Rahul Gandhi were of former Union minister Anand Sharma and MPs Gaurav Gogoi, Dr Syed Naseer Hussain, and Amarinder Singh Raja Warring.
Tharoor was not the Congress’s choice to be a member of the team. Of the four, Sharma is no longer an MP, though he heads the Congress’s internal cell for foreign affairs.
“Rahul should have offered to join the team,” said a New Delhi-based political analyst. “As the Leader of Opposition he might have been offered to lead it as well. Since he speaks so much on foreign policy and what is wrong with everything that the Modi government is doing, this would have served as the perfect opportunity to embarrass PM Modi and the external affairs minister on foreign soil.”
He added: “Meeting heads of foreign states would have boosted Rahul’s image across the country giving the message that he put the country above political interests and was ready to serve.”
In the “thank you” that was posted by Tharoor, a former career diplomat who had also served as the junior external affairs minister, he did exactly that.
“When national interest is involved, and my services are required, I will not be found wanting,” Tharoor wrote on his X handle.
A self-declared “classic liberal,” Tharoor has lately often been found in a contrarian position to that of the Congress high command’s line.
He was also one of the rare Opposition voices to have publicly supported Narendra Modi government’s actions since Operation Sindoor. While Modi and the external affairs minister S Jaishankar have been silent on US President Donald Trump’s claims of forcing a ceasefire, Tharoor “guesses” there was no mediation in the literal term.
The leaders of the other delegations are Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP), Sanjay Kumar Jha (JDU), Baijayant Panda, (BJP) Kanimozhi (DMK), Supriya Sule (NCP-SP) and Shrikant Eknath Shinde (Shiv Sena).
“In moments that matter most, Bharat stands united. Seven All-Party Delegations will soon visit key partner nations, carrying our shared message of zero-tolerance to terrorism. A powerful reflection of national unity above politics, beyond differences,” Kiren Rijiju, Union minister for parliamentary affairs, posted on X (formerly twitter) on Saturday morning.
Members of Parliament from different parties, prominent political personalities and distinguished diplomats will be part of each delegation.
