Tharoor to attend state dinner for Putin amid snub to Cong leaders

Senior Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor has confirmed his attendance at the state banquet hosted by President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan Friday evening in honour of visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The invitation has triggered political attention as key party leaders, including Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, were reportedly not invited to the high-profile diplomatic event.

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Tharoor confirmed his acceptance and clarified the basis of his invitation, emphasizing the non-political nature of his attendance.

“Yes, I have got the invitation. I certainly should be going,” Tharoor stated. “I have been invited in the capacity as the chairman of the [Parliamentary Standing] Committee on External Affairs.”

He further noted that this practice, of inviting the External Affairs Committee Chairman to such state dinners, was once a standard protocol that had lapsed but appears to have been resumed.

“There was a time when the chairman of the external affairs committee was routinely invited but that practice seems to have stopped for some years. It has been resumed …I have been invited, yes.”

The Congress sources confirmed that neither Kharge nor Gandhi, the two most prominent faces of the Opposition, received an invitation to the banquet. This exclusion has drawn sharp criticism from within the Congress.

Party leaders have suggested that the omission of the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the party president from the guest list is a deviation from standard democratic protocol in diplomatic engagements.

“There is no invite to both the LoPs, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi. This comes as a surprise but I do not think we should be surprised. This government is known to be breaching all protocols,” a Congress official said on condition of anonymity.

The controversy over the guest list comes just a day after Gandhi reportedly accused the government of breaking the tradition of inviting Opposition leaders to meet visiting foreign dignitaries, alleging the government feels “insecure.”

The government sources, however, have refuted this charge as baseless.

The state banquet is the final official engagement for President Putin during his two-day visit, underscoring the significance of the India-Russia special and privileged strategic partnership.