'Bharat ki baat sunata hoon': Manish Tewari's post after Congress drops him from Sindoor debate

Congress MP Manish Tewari appeared to hit out at his party on Tuesday after being excluded from the list of speakers for the Parliament debate on Operation Sindoor. Tewari, along with fellow MP Shashi Tharoor, was left out of the high-profile Lok Sabha discussion despite both having represented India in global forums to counter Pakistan’s narrative following the operation.

Tewari posted a screenshot of a news report highlighting the exclusion and accompanied it with a lyric from the 1970 film Purab Aur Pachhim. "Hai preet jahaan ki reet sada, main geet wahaan ke gaata hoon, Bharat ka rehne waala hoon, Bharat ki baat sunata hoon. Jai Hind (I love the customs of that place, I sing songs of that place, I am a resident of India, I tell stories of India)," he wrote on X.

Sources told India Today that Tewari had written to the office of the Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, expressing his interest in speaking during the debate. However, Congress decided against fielding him.

The exclusion has triggered speculation about growing internal differences in the party, especially since Tewari and Tharoor were part of the official all-party delegations that visited various countries to highlight India’s position on Operation Sindoor. Congress MP Amar Singh, another delegation member, was also not named to speak.

In Tharoor's case, sources indicated that while the party had approached him to participate in the discussion, the MP from Kerala declined. He reportedly told the leadership he would be unable to criticise Operation Sindoor, a mission he had publicly supported during international engagements.

Tharoor also made a pointed remark to reporters when asked about his silence in Parliament, saying he was on a “maun vrat” (a vow of silence).

Commenting on the developments, ORF fellow Sushant Sareen wrote on X: "Congress, it seems, has no place for anyone with a single patriotic bone in his/her body. Sad to see the decline of India's Grand Old Party."

The Congress party has not officially responded to the reasons behind the speaker selection for the Operation Sindoor debate.