- By Nidhi Giri
- Sat, 21 Dec 2024 12:15 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday refuted Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri's claims regarding insisting on the inclusion of US billionaire George Soros in an invite list to a dinner in New York in 2009. Shashi Tharoor said his and Puri's recollections of the dinner hosted by the latter during his tenure as the Indian Ambassador to the US differ.
“Our recollections differ, dear Hardeep. There were several guests present at your well-attended dinner whom i had never met before. But i am not objecting; it is entirely appropriate that on such an occasion the Indian Ambassador should have a guest-list spanning a wide cross-section of influential international and local opinion. I see no reason for either of us to disavow our contacts with anyone at the earlier stages of our lives in New York or Geneva,” The Thiruvananthapuram MP wrote in a post on X.
“Incidentally, since you mention it, I was completely unaware of any Mr Soros having any connection to any foundation in India — and have never discussed it with him either. All i remember hearing from him at that occasion was his strong objection to our Government’s stand on the West’s responsibility for global warming!” Tharoor added.
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On Friday, Puri responded to Tharoor's post on X that he met US billionaire George Soros at a formal dinner at the former's New York home. The Union Minister indicated the Congress MP did not show the whole picture - he said it was Tharoor himself who gave the list of invitees for the dinner, and the "gentleman in question was among the benefactors of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, and the Minister of State was keen to meet him."
Language has frequently been accorded pride of place amongst major arts of deception.
— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) December 20, 2024
Some of my friends in the Congress Party excel in obfuscation; but they tweet at their own peril.
I want to take up two issues raised by them.
First - my friend Dr @ShashiTharoor Ji, who was a… pic.twitter.com/sIWc2omjg8
The matter started on December 15 when an X user who identified himself as a BJP worker from Karnataka showed Tharoor an old post from 2009 where Tharoor wrote, "Met old friend George Soros, upbeat about India and curious about our neighbourhood. He's far more than an investor: a concerned world citizen."