'Absolute Lie': Congress slams Rijiju's 'did not ask for names for delegations' remark

New Delhi: Congress on Monday dismissed Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju’s reported remarks that the government did not ask for names for multi-party delegations visiting various countries to campaign against Pakistan sponsored cross-border terrorism as "absolute lie" even as it called the exercise "damage control delegations".

General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's image has taken "a beating" and that is why delegations are being sent to various countries, even as he repeated the demand for a Prime Minister-chaired all-party meeting and a special session of Parliament to give a fresh impetus to the resolution of 22 February, 1994.

"After 11 years of abusing and defaming the Opposition - especially the Congress - the PM is now forced to send all-party delegations overseas. The truth is that the BJP's poisonous politics at home has cost us hugely abroad. Our sanctimonious diplomacy has fallen flat and India is back to being hyphenated with Pakistan. That is the real 'new normal.’ The self-styled Vishwaguru’s balloon - which was full of hot air - has been well and truly punctured," he said.

"It is a reflection of his own inadequacies - now completely exposed - that the Prime Minister is now turning towards bipartisanship. But this is only momentary, hypocritical, and opportunistic," he said.

On Rijiju's reported remarks that the government did not ask Congress for names and called just the top leadership as courtesy, Ramesh said, "that is absolute lie. He had a conversation in the morning of May 16 with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and in pursuance of that conversation, a letter was sent to Rijiju suggesting four names."

Rahul suggested the names of Anand Sharma, Gaurav Gogoi, Syed Naseer Hussain and Raja Brar. Government accepted Sharma's name while also choosing Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari, Salman Khurshid and Amar Singh to be part of the delegations.

"Why didn't the Prime Minister telephone the Congress president and the Leader of Opposition? Why didn't he have the courtesy to do that? The fact is that India's narrative has been punctured and continues to get punctured because of the politics of polarisation in the country," he said.

"If it was important for the Congress MPs to be in the delegations, there should have been a discussion with the party. Will you (government) decide the names of our MPs going in the delegation? We have no issues with the names that have been chosen. The process that has been chosen is wrong."

He also said there was no question of "internal dynamics", as suggested by Rijiju and referred to the consultation process adopted by the previous Congress government. "Manmohan Singh and his advisors consulted all political parties and that was how the delegations were sent after Mumbai attacks in 2008. In the case of AB Vajpayee in the 1990s, then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao called the BJP leader."

Calling the Modi government's exercise "damage control delegations", Ramesh claimed that every country had condemned Pakistan after the 2008 attack but today India is being hyphenated with Pakistan.