New Delhi : Congress MP Manish Tewari on Tuesday offered a cryptic response when asked about his social media post that stirred speculation over his exclusion from the Lok Sabha debate on Operation Sindoor.
In a brief but telling remark, Tewari said, "There is a saying in English- 'If you don't understand my silences, you will never understand my words'. " His statement follows a post earlier in the day on X, where he shared a media report about Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and himself from the list of Congress speakers during the Operation Sindoor discussion in Parliament. Notably, both Tewari and Tharoor had been part of the government's all-party delegations.
In the caption of the post, the Congress MP conjured Manoj Kumar's patriotic song from "Purab aur Pashchim", "Hai preet jahaan ki reet sada, main geet wahaan ke gaata hoon, Bharat ka rehne waala hoon, Bharat ki baat sunata hoon. Jai Hind."
Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari, who were part of Operation Sindoor Outreach, India's diplomatic efforts to brief foreign governments on the necessity of Operation Sindoor and highlight Pakistan's complicity in terrorism, were excluded from the list of speakers for the Parliament discussion on Operation Sindoor.
The sources said that while Manish Tewari had sent a request to the party to speak during the debate, Tharoor conveyed unwillingness as his stance during the visit abroad of the delegation would be at variance with the party's strong stance against the government on aspects related to the military operation to hit target infrastructure in Pakistan and PoJK. Tharoor led one of the all-party delegations.
Tharoor also gave a cryptic reply when asked if he would take part in the debate. "Maunvrat, maunvrat," Tharoor told reporters. Earlier in the day, responding to a question on Tewari's tweet, fellow Congress MP Karti Chidambaram distanced himself from any internal disagreement, saying, "I don't know what he has said. The party is free to choose whoever it wants to speak in various motions."