A day after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) refused to send MP Yusuf Pathan—who was nominated by the central government for an all-party, international delegation tour citing lack of consultation—Abhishek Banerjee, TMC second-in-command and party MP from Diamond Harbour, was brought in his place.
Abhishek will be part of the JD(U)'s Sanjay Kumar Jha-headed team that will be going to five nations: Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore. The other prominent members of the delegation are CPI(M)'s John Brittas, BJP's Aparajita Sarangi, and Congress leader Salman Khurshid.
Sources stated that TMC's shift in position came after a discussion between Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju and TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. In the course of the exchange, Mamata is said to have suggested Abhishek's induction.
Not long after, the Shiv Sena (UBT) reported that party president Uddhav Thackeray too had been called by Rijiju on Monday. In a release, the party explained: "This delegation is about India vs terrorism, not politics, and on being convinced this, we have also convinced the government that we shall do what is right and required for our nation through this delegation." Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi will be the party's representative on the tour.
Only two days ago, Shiv Sena (UBT) president Sanjay Raut had disparaged the central government's move, referring to the delegations as a "baraat (wedding procession)" and questioning their timing and motivations. He asked INDIA bloc members to abstain, citing that crucial Opposition parties like the Sena (UBT), TMC, Samajwadi Party, and RJD had not been approached despite controlling a large majority of Parliament seats.
Raut also accused the BJP Centre of politicizing a national security issue for political gain, adding: "Instead of forging consensus, the government is picking and choosing MPs at will, bypassing voices of the Opposition. This is not diplomacy – it's a show."
On Tuesday, the Sena (UBT) stated in a statement reiterating its concerns. "We do have our views on the diplomatic landscape and the breakdown in intelligence / security machinery on Pahalgam, and we will continue to ask questions in the national interest, within our own country.". But we will have to come together internationally to unmask Pak-based terror, so that it is isolated and eliminated… We also conveyed to the Union government that while we stand together on this cause, a protocol of better informing the parties could be adopted regarding these delegations, so that there was not chaos and mismanagement.
First, the Centre had picked first-time MP Yusuf Pathan from Baharampur in Murshidabad for one of the seven all-party delegations. With Sudip Bandopadhyay from TMC pulling out on health grounds, Pathan was the only party nominee in the list. But the TMC pulled him out citing procedural issues.
Reacting to this, Mamata Banerjee said on Monday: "They (the Centre) cannot unilaterally decide the name (of the TMC representative). If they ask the mother party, the party will choose the name. This is the tradition and this is the system. We are completely with the Centre on foreign policy… If they ask me to send someone's name, we will choose it and inform them.
In a simultaneous development, the TMC said it would be sending an independent delegation to the areas affected by cross-border firing—Srinagar, Poonch, and Rajouri. This delegation will be headed by West Bengal minister Manas Ranjan Bhunia and will comprise Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien and Lok Sabha MPs Sagarika Ghose, Md Nadimul Haque, and Mamata Thakur.
The Congress party, meanwhile, protested the Centre's unilateral choice of its members for the delegations. However, it assured its MPs would take part, stressing the common cause was bigger than procedural disputes. The Centre, meanwhile, insisted that no political party was consulted before choosing the delegates.
Read also| Mamata Banerjee's Party Rejects Unilateral Inclusion in Operation Sindoor Delegation
