‘He praised govt abroad': After Abhishek Banerjee's criticism, members in his delegation question ‘U-turn'
Reacting to Abhishek Banerjee's recent statements questioning the effectiveness of the multi-party delegations that visited different countries to explain India's position on cross-border terrorism, Janata Dal (United) working president and MP Sanjay Jha on Tuesday said the Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP had praised Operation Sindoor in all the five countries that the delegation visited. Jha led the delegation that visited Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
'He went to all these places, and in all the five places he praised the government on Operation Sindoor,' Jha told The Indian Express, expressing surprise over Banerjee's statement. Jha also said Banerjee had spoken about the rationale behind keeping the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance.
The delegation also had former ambassador Mohan Kumar; former External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid; BJP MPs Brij Lal, Aparajita Sarangi, Pradan Baruah and Hemang Joshi; and CPI(M) MP John Brittas. A member of the delegation who did not wish to be named also questioned the TMC second-in-command's U-turn. 'Hamare saath the toh dhuaandaar desh ki taareef ki (When he was with us, he showered praises on the country),' said the MP.
Khurshid told The Indian Express that he doesn't think it is 'necessary or wise for the delegates to say anything'. 'My view has been that our parties had some agreement to send us abroad on a common issue. When we were abroad, we didn't have any problem in sharing a common point of view, which was essentially about India's response to a terror attack. Beyond that, there are, obviously, ideological and political differences of leadership here at home. Therefore, it might be that in conversations and speeches that will get reflected,' Khurshid said.
'I don't think it is necessary or wise for us to say anything. I am speaking for myself. This is the reason I didn't give interviews before or after meeting the Prime Minister. I thought it was part of the exercise we were mandated to do with the approval and participation of our parties. This is without commenting on what anyone may have said,' he added.
On Monday, less than a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met all the delegations, Abhishek Banerjee wrote on X: 'After reaching out to 33 countries post-Pahalgam in the last one month, how many extended explicit support to India?' He sought to know how Pakistan got IMF and World Bank loans despite the attack, and how the country was appointed vice-chair of the UN Security Council's counter-terror committee barely a month after the attack.
Banerjee sought accountability for the massive breach in national security after 55 days of the Pahalgam attack, wondering why the Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief was given a one-year extension after the intelligence failure, and asked whether the four terrorists who carried out the Pahalgam attack were dead or alive. He also sought to know when India would reclaim Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.
Following Abhishek Banerjee's post on X, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien released a video supporting him. 'Someone needed to call this government out. Someone needed to hold this government accountable. Someone needed to ask five direct questions,' he said, adding that the government's silence on these critical issues was unacceptable.
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