Global stage to Lok Sabha silence: Congress MPs may skip Operation Sindoor debate

New Delhi : Neither of the three Congress MPs who were part of the multi-party delegations on the govt’s global outreach against Pakistans ponsored terrorism may speak in the Lok Sabha debate on the Pahalgam attack Operation Sindoor issue.

Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari are not in the shortlist of speakers, while there is no clarity yet on Amar Singh. The party apparently reached out to Tharoor over the weekend but he is said to have turned down the offer to participate in the discussion. He had not expressed adesire on his own till then.
Tharoor’s absence provided BJP an opening to needle Congress.

BJP MP Baijayant Panda asked Congress to give a “free hand” to its MPs and claimed that Congress leadership was not allowing Tharoor to speak. But, Panda said, he was happy nobody could stop Tharoor from speaking in the country’s interest.

Sources said Tharoor has expressed a wish to speak on Indian Ports Bill, with local interest being the Vizhinjam port in his constituency Thiruvananthapuram, recently inaugurated in a high-profile ceremony attended by the PM and netas across party lines.

Tewari will speak on the twin legislations related to sports that are to come up soon for discussion in LS. Apparently, the Chandigarh MP had expressed desire to speak initially on the Pahalgam-Sindoor issue, but later plumped for the sports legislations.

Sources said as per the inhouse system that includes “performance assessment”, an MP is named to speak on only one big issue to give chance to maximum members.

The absence of Tharoor and Tewari has been noticed given they were eager participants in global outreach delegations. Tharoor’s repeated remarks in favour of govt’s claims about Operation Sindoor against Pakistan, and his contradiction of US President Trump’s “ceasefire” claims embarrassed Congress, and led to public arguments with the Congress managers.