Congress miffed as Centre rejects three names suggest for multi-party delegation; says it won't block four others chosen by govt

New Delhi: Congress on Saturday night found fault with the government over rejection of three of the four names suggested by the party for a delegation headed to various countries to campaign against Pakistan but said it will not prevent four other party leaders chosen by the dispensation from being part of the exercise.

In a statement, Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said, "most regrettably" only one of the four names suggested by the party leadership has been included in the delegation.

Ramesh also recalled that the Modi government had on Friday morning sought four names from the Congress to be part of the delegations and these four names were conveyed to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju by 12 noon.

While senior leader Anand Sharma found space in one of the seven delegations, the government did not accept the nominations of Gaurav Gogoi, Syed Naseer Hussain and Raja Brar.

"This proves the complete insincerity of the Modi Govt and shows the cheap political games it always plays on serious national issues," he said.

The government has also chosen four Congress leaders, whose names were not forwarded by the party, as part of the delegations and it included Shashi Tharoor, Salman Khurshid, Manish Tewari and Amar Singh.

"The four eminent Congress MPs/leaders who have been included at the instance of the Modi government will, of course, go with the delegations and make their contributions. The Congress will not stoop to the pathetic level of the PM and the BJP. It will always uphold the finest traditions of Parliamentary democracy and not play partisan politics on national security issues, like the BJP does," he said.

Wishing the delegations "all the very best", Ramesh said these delegations should not, however, divert attention from the demands to have all-paty meetings chaired by the Prime Minister and for a special session of Parliament to reiterate the resolution adopted on 22 February, 1994 while also taking note of developments thereafter.