Manish Shukla, Uttar Pradesh BJP spokesperson, says while all-party delegations showed India’s unity on global platforms, the Congress at home derided its own leaders. His views:
The all-party delegations that were dispatched for global outreach after Operation Sindoor, have returned after successfully achieving their goals. The members of these various delegations were hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who expressed both his admiration and gratitude to the leaders that proved India is one in spite of political differences.
Indian showed that in spite of political differences amid its leaders across spectrum, it stood one when it comes to the nation. Be it the Congress party’s Shashi Tharoor, Salman Khurshid, Anand Sharma or other opposition party leaders like Asaduddin Owaisi, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Kanimozhi… each one brilliantly put across the country’s viewpoint on global platforms. They destroyed Pakistan’s claims and exposed its misdeeds on terror front.
However, many political observers feel that the role of Congress leadership on the domestic front was far from desirable. Ever since the members of the delegations were announced, the Congress started grumbling. Their problem seems to be that they cannot utter a word against Pakistan even while its own party leaders were exposing the aggressive neighbour at international level.
I would just like to quote a few examples: The Congress was fiercely opposed to the abrogation of Article 370 from J&K but its own leader, Salman Khurshid, supported it and praised the central government’s stand on Kashmir in Indonesia. This came after another Congress leader Shashi Tharoor openly accepted that it was the NDA government that, for the first time, crossed the Line of Control and conducted a surgical strike on terror outfits in PoK, as against recent claims of many Congress leaders that UPA too conducted similar strikes during its regime.
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This reflects Congress’ bankruptcy at the national narrative level and shows that it cannot tolerate a word against Pakistan even from its own leaders. Clearly, if any Congress leader supports the Centre in hammering or criticizing India’s enemy, this goes against the party line. Surprisingly though, Tharoor has himself defended his participation in the delegation by recalling the landmark moment when former PM Atal Bihari Vajpaee accompanied the PM PV Narsimha Rao in a delegation to the United Nations to present India’s case on Kashmir in 1994.
As far as the speculations of Sashi Tharoor or any other leader joining the BJP, let me tell you these are just rumours which start making rounds if anyone speaks in favour of the country. Such leaders are instantly coined as an agent of BJP for spelling out the “saffron agenda”. Such attempts were beautifully captured by Salman Khurshid when he retorted on social media, by saying “Is it so difficult to be patriotic?”
Humorously though, the Congress also makes silly allegations that the BJP is into the practice of poaching ‘quality’ leaders from opposition parties. Let it be made clear once and for all – the BJP is wholly and solely dedicated to the cause of a developed and prosperous India – a Viksit Bharat – and anyone who wants to join this noble cause is always welcome to the party fold.
As told to Rajat Rai
