Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday attended a presidential banquet for Russian Premier Vladimir Putin, despite neither leader of the Opposition in Parliament being invited.

The Centre’s snub to Lok Sabha Opposition leader and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, and Rajya Sabha Opposition leader and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge came a day after the former spoke out against the Narendra Modi government for allegedly discouraging interactions between foreign dignitaries and Opposition leaders.

MPs and leaders of the CPM, AAP, Trinamool, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Biju Janata Dal and the CPIML-Liberation, who this paper contacted, had also not been invited.

Congress publicity head Pawan Khera told reporters: “This comes as a surprise, but I don’t think we should
be surprised. This government is known for breaching all protocols.”

Asked about Tharoor — who has made several departures from the party line in the recent past — attending, Khera replied: “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 are also questionable.”

Earlier in the day, Tharoor told reporters outside Parliament that inviting the chairman of the external affairs committee — a post he holds — for such events was a practice that appeared to have been discontinued in the past few years.

“It has been resumed.... I have been invited, yes. I will definitely go,” he said.

On the LoPs not being invited, Tharoor said: “I don’t know on what basis invitations were sent. I think the custom that usually used to be followed was for a wide representation. Certainly, I remember in the old days, they used to invite not only
the LoPs… (but) a cross section 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 protocol, by the Rashtrapati Bhavan…. All I can say, I am honoured to have been invited. Of course I will go.”

On Thursday, Rahul had told reporters: These days, when foreign dignitaries visit or when I travel abroad, the government advises them not to meet the LoP….”