Kharge, Rahul not invited to Putin banquet: Congress

The Congress on Friday (December 5, 2025) said party President and Leaders of the Opposition (LoP) in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and his Lok Sabha counterpart, Rahul Gandhi, were not invited to the official banquet hosted in honour of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh, in an X post, said speculation over whether the two LoPs had been invited could now be put to rest. “The two LoPs have not been invited,” Mr. Ramesh said.

His colleague and head of the party’s media department, Pawan Khera told PTI that the government had routinely disregarded protocol. “There is no invite for Mr. Kharge and Mr. Gandhi. This is disappointing but not surprising. This government is known for breaching protocol on a daily basis,” he said.

When asked about his party colleague and Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor accepting an invitation to the banquet, Mr. Khera said, “Ask Mr. Tharoor. If our leaders are not invited but we are, we must question our own conscience. There is politics behind who is invited and who is not, and accepting such an invitation is also questionable. We would have listened to our voice of conscience.”

Mr. Tharoor, who chairs the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, told reporters that the practice of inviting the Committee’s chair had been discontinued for some years but appeared to have resumed. “I have been invited, yes. I will definitely go,” he said.

On Mr. Kharge and Mr. Gandhi not being invited, Mr. Tharoor said he did not know on what basis the guest list was drawn up. He recalled that earlier, invitations were extended widely across parties, including to both Leaders of Opposition. “It conveyed a good impression,” he said, adding, “This is all done by the government, by protocol, by Rashtrapati Bhavan. I have no idea. I am honoured to have been invited.”

On Thursday, Mr. Gandhi alleged that the government discourages visiting foreign dignitaries from meeting the Leader of the Opposition out of “insecurity”. He said a long-standing tradition — followed during the tenures of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh — of LoPs meeting foreign leaders was no longer being observed.

“When foreign dignitaries come, or when I travel abroad, the government suggests to them to not meet the LoP,” Mr. Gandhi had told reporters.

(With PTI inputs)