“No other democracy…”: Shashi Tharoor hits out at Centre for not inviting Congress chief Kharge at G20 dinner
Sep 10, 2023
New Delhi [India], September 10 : Lashing out at the Centre for not extending an invite to Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge to the G20 dinner hosted by President Droupadi Murmu, party leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said "no other democracy would snub its own parliamentary colleagues on a global stage like this".
Taking to his official handle on X, formerly Twitter, the Congress MP posted, "This diplomatic triumph makes it all the more a pity that the government does not bring the same attitude of conciliation & co-operation to bear in its domestic dealings. The failure to invite the Leader of the Opposition, and indeed any Opposition MP, to any of the G20 events, receptions, dinner, underscores my point. No other democracy would snub its own Parliamentary colleagues on a global stage like this. A pity that the spirit of accommodation that prevailed at G20 is absent within Indian politics!”
Several leaders of the Opposition bloc — INDIA — including from the Congress, skipped the presidential dinner at the state-of-the-art Bharat Mandapam in the national capital in protest against the non-inclusion of Kharge in the list of invitees for the event.
Earlier on Friday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also came down hard on the Centre for not inviting Kharge, also the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, to the G20 dinner.
Addressing a press conference in Brussels, who is currently touring Europe, said, "They decided not to invite the Leader of the Opposition. This tells you something. It tells you that they don't value the leader of 60 per cent of India's population. It's something that people should think about — why they are feeling the need to do this and the thinking behind it."
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel also weighed in on the issue earlier, terming Kharge non-invite “unfortunate”.
"It's unfortunate that he hasn't been invited to the summit. The Opposition's place in a democracy should be respected. Opposition leaders have a very important role to play in a polity," Baghel told reporters in Raipur.
