Salman Khurshid, a former External Affairs Minister in UPA government, has been made part of the delegation going to Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and Singapore.
New Delhi: Government on Saturday night announced 59 names for seven multi-party delegations it will be sending abroad to explain India’s stance on terrorism emanating from Pakistan, after rejecting three of the four names suggested by the Congress and choosing four leaders on its own from the main opposition party.
Senior Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who did not figure in the official Congress list, was made the leader of a delegation headed to the United States, Panama, Guyana, Brazil and Colombia while Punjab MP Amar Singh is in the delegation led by BJP’s Ravishankar Prasad going to the United Kingdom, France, Germany, European Union, Italy and Denmark.
Salman Khurshid, a former External Affairs Minister in UPA government, has been made part of the delegation going to Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and Singapore while senior MP Manish Tewari and former Union Minister Anand Sharma will be headed to Egypt, Qatar, Ethiopia, South Africa.
Of this, Congress had recommended only Sharma’s name for being part of the government exercise to drum up support for India. The government rejected the names of Congress Lok Sabha Deputy Leader Gaurav Gogoi, Rajya Sabha Chief Whip Syed Naseer Hussain and Punjab MP Raja Brar, setting stage for a confrontation with the Congress.
One mission. One message. One Bharat 🇮🇳
Seven All-Party Delegations will soon engage key nations under #OperationSindoor, reflecting our collective resolve against terrorism.Here’s the list of MPs & delegations representing this united front. https://t.co/1igT7D21mZ pic.twitter.com/3eaZS21PbC
— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) May 17, 2025
Of the 59 members, which includes eight diplomats, 21 belong to the BJP while Congress has five members, TDP 3 and AAP 2 and Shiv Sena 2. Other parties, including DMK, Samajwadi Party, CPI(M) and Trinamool Congress, have one each.
In the morning, the government had announced the leaders for the delegations, including Tharoor. A “surprised” Congress then accused the government of “playing games” with a “mischievous mindset” and said the government “should not add a name in such delegations without consulting the party”, especially “when we were asked for names and it was given in good faith”. I
The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs named the leaders of the delegations in a statement, with Tharoor on top of the list followed by Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP), Sanjay Kumar Jha (JD-U), Baijayant Panda (BJP), Kanimozhi (DMK), Supriya Sule (NCP-SP) and Shrikant Shinde (Shiv Sena).
