LoP Kharge's Exclusion For G20 Dinner Is Improper
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2023-09-09 02:53:48
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Since President Murmu is hosting a dinner for dignitaries attending the G20 meeting in Delhi for the first time, it cannot be said that the list of invitees should be according to protocol, custom or tradition. The government has invited all the senior and junior ministers in the Union cabinet, chief ministers of states and selected business leaders, among others. But heads of opposition parties have not been invited. By that token Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge has also not been invited.
But is it proper to equate Kharge with other heads of opposition parties? For, Kharge is the leader of the opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha. That post entitles him to privileges at par with those accorded to a Union minister. Hence, if all ministers in the Modi cabinet have been invited, courtesy demanded that Kharge too was invited.
But such is the deep division Indian polity and mistrust between the government and the opposition that the Centre has overlooked (some would say on purpose) this point. If Kharge had been invited for being the LoP, it would have shown the government to be democratically-correct and one is sure none of the other opposition parties would have objected to the Congress being given prominence. But having taken the decision of not inviting heads of opposition parties, the government made a mistake in equating the Kharge with them.
