SUSHMA SWARAJ, the leader of the parliamentary delegation to Sri Lanka, earned praise for the manner in which she conducted herself throughout the trip.
The 12 members of the delegation were from both Houses of Parliament and belonged to the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Janata Dal (United), the Samajwadi Party, the Biju Janata Dal and the Communist Party of India (Marxist). For the Colombo leg, Sushma Swaraj insisted that she would travel in the minibus allotted to the MPs and refused the car provided to the head of the delegation, even though she found climbing the steps of the bus a bit difficult.
On the second day of the trip, the delegation's bus trailed the convoy as a result of which the MPs could not reach the Mullaitivu General Hospital and the site of the India-assisted housing project on time. Sidhant Mohapatra, a six-time State award winning Oriya actor in the delegation, brought this to her notice. From then on until the end of the tour, the vehicle in which the MPs travelled preceded Sushma's vehicle when she travelled in a car.
Delegation members T.K. Rangarajan, N.S.V. Chithan, Sudarsana Nachiappan and others were lavish in their praise of Sushma. They pointed out that she allowed each member to speak, probe and ask questions, though it was a time-consuming process. On April 21, the day the team held its press conference, the MPs unanimously wanted her to answer all questions: this saved time and also made it clear that the delegation spoke in one voice.
R.K. RadhakrishnanCOMMents
COMMents
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