New Delhi: Not Rahul Gandhi nor Mallikarjun Kharge. Perhaps the only Congress leader to be invited to Rashtrapati Bhavan for the ceremonial dinner being thrown in the honour of Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday is Shashi Tharoor.
According to TOI, Tharoor has confirmed that he has been invited to the President’s dinner. Speaking to the media outside the Parliament complex, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said he will “definitely go” to the dinner.
This has caused considerable discomfort to the Congress that has been accusing the government of keeping the opposition away from Putin. The party confirmed that invitations were not extended to Rahul, who is Leader of Opposition (LOP) in the in the Lok Sabha or Congress president Kharge, who is also the LOP in the Rajya Sabha.
Congress leader Pawan Khera accused the government of “breaching all protocols”, claiming that the “decision came as a surprise.”
“There is no invite for the other LoPs, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi. This comes as a surprise, but we should not be surprised because this government is used to breaching all protocols,” Khera said.
Khera also slammed Tharoor for accepting the invitation and said that he “should understand why the game is being played.”
“It’s quite surprising that an invitation was sent and the invitation was accepted also. Everyone’s conscience has a voice. When my leaders aren’t invited, but I am, we should understand why the game is being played, who is playing the game, and why we shouldn’t be part of it,” he added.
This is not the first time in the last few days that Tharoor has earned his party’s ire. Recently, he had spoken out against attempts by the opposition to create chaos during Parliamentary proceedings.
“I have said this from the very beginning. My party leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, know this very well. I may be the lone voice in the party, but I have no doubts that people have elected me to represent them in parliament, not just to shout and create a ruckus. They have sent me to use my intelligence to speak for the nation and speak for them,” he had said.
This came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the Parliament is no place for staging “dramas” and urged the opposition of behaving responsibly.
