The Minister of State for External Affairs of India, Meenakshi Lekhi denies decalring Hamas a terrorist organisation. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
The Minister of State for External Affairs of India, Meenakshi Lekhi has denied signing any document that deems Hamas, a military organisation governing the Gaza Strip, a terrorist organisation in India or if the government of Israel demanded India to declare Hamas, a terrorist outfit.
The Minister called for an inquiry on X, formerly known as Twitter after a document available on the website of the Ministry of External Affairs mentioned her name questioning the above.
She tweeted, “You have been misinformed as I have not signed any paper with this question and this answer @DrSJaishankar @PMOIndia.” In another tweet, she mentioned that the culprit will be revealed soon.
The question, available on MEA’s website was posed by Loksabha member K. Sudhakaran. The answer has been signed by Ms. Lekhi but it doesn’t provide a direct reply but states designating a body as a terrorist is under UAPA.
It is the Home Ministry that deals with it and not the External Affairs Ministry.
Members of both Houses ask questions to relevant ministries and a reply is sent to them by the concerned Ministers. The same is uploaded on the ministry’s website and Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha websites.
Select questions, known as starred questions are posed on the floor of the House during the Question Hour. The Chair may permit the member to ask additional questions too. In this case, it was an unstarred question.