CEC, EAM will remain silent: Jairam Ramesh flags diplomat row in Puducherry

New Delhi: Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said that both Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar are unlikely to respond to the party's recent questions concerning BJP's Puducherry President and Raj Bhavan constituency candidate VP Ramalingam and Latchiya Jananayaga Katchi (LJK) chief Jose Charles Martin hosting a Sri Lankan diplomat in Puducherry.

Replying to Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera's post on X, Ramesh wrote, "The answers to your three questions are self-evident: 1. He will not, 2. He will not, 3. Yes, both will remain silent."

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This comes after Khera on Saturday questioned the presence of Sri Lanka's Deputy Consul General for South India, Ganesanathan Ketheeswaran, at an event in Vaithikuppam, Puducherry. According to Khera, Martin had invited Ketheeswaran to meet local fishermen and hear their grievances, with BJP's Puducherry President VP Ramalingam also present.

"The Deputy Consul General of Sri Lanka for South India, Mr. Ganesanathan Ketheeswaran, was invited by Latchiya Jananayaga Katchi (LJK) chief Jose Charles Martin to meet fishermen in the Vaithikuppam area of Puducherry and hear their grievances. The BJP's Puducherry President and their Raj Bhavan constituency candidate, VP Ramalingam was also present at the event," the 'X' post said.

Khera described the event as a gross violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which bars foreign diplomats from interfering in the internal affairs of a host country.

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"This is a gross violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which states that foreign diplomats' have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of that State." Both India and Sri Lanka are signatories to this Convention. Questions arise: 1. Will the sleeping beauty of the ECI - Gyanesh Kumar Gupta - issue a notice to LJK and the BJP for hosting a diplomat at a political event? 2. Will S Jaishankar issue a demarche to the diplomat? 3. Or will both remain silent because Martin and his party have been hired by the BJP to do its dirty work?," he said.