'Mazaa to tab aata...': BJP's Jay Panda needles Congress over Tharoor's exclusion from Operation Sindoor debate

BJP MP Baijayant 'Jay' Panda greets Congress MP Jairam Ramesh. (File Photo: PTI)

Baijayant Panda, Bharatiya Janata Party's national vice-president and Lok Sabha MP from Odisha's Kendrapara, on Monday put up a strong defence of the government in Parliament during a special discussion on Operation Sindoor, India's military response to the Pahalgam terror attack that left 26 civilians dead.

The debate, that was pushed by Opposition parties demanding that the Centre, particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi, answer some key questions on the India-Pakistan conflict and the terror attack on the floor of both Houses of Parliament.

However, the Congress party's list of speakers for the Lok Sabha, which includes leaders like LoP Rahul Gandhi and MPs Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Gaurav Gogoi among others, became the Centre of attention ahead of the debate as its most articulate MPs like Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari were missing from the list of speakers.

The reason for the conspicuous absence of these leaders became apparent soon -- both were part of Centre's multi-party delegations abroad immediately after Operation Sindoor. Their inclusion by the Centre left the Congress leadership peeved as the list of Congress delegates did not include names it had voluntarily suggested to the government.

Taking potshots at the Congress over the absence of Tharoor from its list of speakers, Panda said that the discussion in Lok Sabha would have been far more interesting had the grand old party given a free hand to its MPs.

"There are several of your (Congress) leaders who speak very well. My dear friend Shashi Tharoor is extremely articulate. It is a different matter that his party's leadership does not allow him to speak for the party. But I appreciate that nobody could stop him from speaking in favour of the country."

Tharoor had emerged as one of the most articulate voices to present India's position during Operation Sindoor as well as its diplomatic offensive against Pakistan at the global stage following the Pahalgam attack, a dastardly act carried out by Pakistan-based terrorists.

Tharoor's strong defence and appreciation of India's official stand on its military offensive against Pakistan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decisive actions against terror infrastructure within Pakistan left the Congress leadership unimpressed.

His praise for the current government's past actions in response to terror emanating from Pakistan, including the surgical strikes in PoK and the Balakot air strikes, was also countered by the Congress leadership back home.

Besides Tharoor, all other Congress MPs who were part of the multiple delegations that covered 33 countries to take India's message on Operation Sindoor to the world failed to make it to the party's list of speakers in Parliament.

A report in The Indian Express quoted a Congress MP as saying that the party picked new MPs to speak in Parliament during the discussion as the delegations that represented India abroad "spoke in favour of the government".

"Now, it is time to voice the concerns of the Opposition and people of India, and hence, the party has picked new people to speak in the House," the MP was quoted as saying.