‘Is it difficult to be patriotic?’ asks Salman Khurshid; a message to Congress?

Congress leader Salman Khurshid, part of an all-party delegation visiting various countries to explain India’s stand on cross-border terrorism, expressed his displeasure over some people at “home” focusing on political allegiances over unity.

His remark is seen as a veiled dig at his own party leaders who have been critical over the selection of MPs for the delegations.

"When on mission against terrorism, to carry India's message to the world, it's distressing that people at home are calculating political allegiances,” he wrote on X.

“Is it s difficult to be patriotic?,” he further asked.

The Congress has maintained that the government should have convened a special session of parliament and appraised them of the situation before sending the delegations to various countries.

Also, the grand old party has also alleged that the government sidelined the list of MPs it had given for the delegations and chose the members on its own. Interestingly, the names of Khurshid and Shashi Tharoor were not there in the list proposed by the party.

Khurshid’s team, led by JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, is currently in Malaysia after having visited Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore.

Talking about his cryptic tweet, Khurshid told news agency ANI that he has been facing questions about his role in a delegation which also has members from the BJP.

"People keep saying, 'what are you doing in a delegation where there are people from the BJP. What are you doing there?' What are we doing here? We are doing here is, what is needed for the country,” said the Congress leader.

“I think when I say ‘is it difficult to be a patriot’ - that is the question that has to be asked of those who are putting out tweets and saying things that I think I believe are not very encouraging when you want to do something for the nation,” Khurshid further said.