MEA replaces Meenakshi Lekhi’s name with V Muraleedharan in statement on Hamas

New Delhi: The External Affairs Ministry (MEA) on Monday issued a statement in the Lok Sabha replacing the name of minister of state (MoS) Meenakshi Lekhi with that of her colleague V Muraleedharan in its December 8 reply to a starred question on Hamas after the wrong attribution was flagged by Lekhi and the opposition slammed the Centre over the issue.

Lok Sabha’s official website posted a question by Congress MP K Sudhakaran on whether the government had any proposal to declare Hamas as a terrorist organisation. In its written reply attributed to Lekhi, the ministry said, “Designation of an organisation as terrorist is covered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and declaring any organisation as terrorist is considered as per the provisions of the Act by the relevant government departments.”

However, Lekhi in a post on X said: “…I have not signed any paper with this question and this answer…Inquiry will reveal the culprit.” In a press conference, she added: “…I have not signed any document related to that question… I have called the foreign secretary and requested him to take action against those involved in this.”

“We also don’t know what our stance on Hamas is. That is why a very strange situation has been created where we don’t have information about the state of our foreign affairs. (External affairs minister) Mr Jaishankar and Ms Lekhi are here, that is why I want an open discussion in the House about foreign policy. Modiji’s second term has reached its last leg, there should be a detailed discussion about external affairs in the House,” he said.

Chowdhury also critiqued the Centre’s handling of a number of international issues. “Today, many questions about our country’s foreign policy are being raised. In Maldives, for instance, elections were held and ‘India Out’ was on the agenda. And those who raised this slogan won the elections. When this situation happened in Maldives, we should have paid more attention to it, because it is a strategic island.”

Later, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi clarified that the document needed a “technical correction”. “We have noted that Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No 980 answered on 8 December 2023 needs a technical correction in terms of reflecting Shri V Muraleedharan as the Minister of State replying to the Parliament Question,” he said in a statement without giving details of how the error had occurred.

Muraleedharan on Monday laid the correction in the House, which said the reply “needs a technical correction in terms of reflecting Shri V Muraleedharan as the Minister of State replying to the Parliament question”.

Congress floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Monday slammed the Centre’s foreign policy and asked for an “open discussion” on it in the House.

He added, “In Qatar, eight of our Navy personnel are facing execution. We don’t know what the government is doing. In PoK, China and Pakistan are creating a corridor in occupied Kashmir. We say that we will capture PoK, but a 3,000 km corridor is ripping through it. We see that our relationship with Canada is deteriorating. The US Justice Department announced in November that it had arrested a man who was allegedly working to assassinate someone else. And it was said that our External Affairs Ministry sent someone a memo.”