Is India banning Hamas? Minister Meenakshi Lekhi denies signing parliamentary document
File photo of Meenakshi Lekhi, India's Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture
India's Minister of State for External Affairs, Meenakshi Lekhi, denied signing a document that purportedly answered a parliamentary query underscoring if India had designated Palestinian group Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
The parliamentary query by K Sudhakaran, Congress party's Member of Parliament (MP) from Kerala state's Kannur constituency, was addressed to India's Ministry of External Affairs. It asked if the Indian government had any proposal to declare Hamas as a terrorist organisation in India; and if the Israeli government raised any demand to the government of India to declare the Palestinian group as a terrorist organisation.
A reply was given on the aforementioned query by the Ministry of External Affairs in the name of Minister of State Menakshi Lekhi thatread,"Designation of an organisation as terrorist is covered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and declaring any organisation as terrorist is considered as per the provisions of the Act by the relevant government departments."
Lekhi, however, denied that she had signedany paper with the aforementioned question and the subsequent answer.
The parliamentary paper with Lekhi's reply was previously available on the website of Lok Sabha as well as the Ministry of External Affairs.
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The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also clarified that the response attributed to Minister Lekhi needs "technical correction" in terms of reflecting the name of V Muraleedharan, who is the other Minister of State for External Affairs.
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Responding to media queries regarding the aforementioned Lok Sabha question answered on 8 December 2023, the MEA official spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi said: "We have noted that Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 980 answered on 8 December 2023 needs a technical correction in terms of reflecting Shri VMuraleedharan as the Minister of State replying to the Parliament Question. This is being suitably undertaken."