Monday, May 20

On Hamas Question, Answer In Parliament, Minister Meenakshi Lekhi Says: “I Have Not Signed Any Paper”

Edited by Dileep Kumar S
On Hamas Question, Answer In Parliament, Minister Meenakshi Lekhi Says: "I Have Not Signed Any Paper"

Congress’ Kannur MP K Sudhakaran asked an unstarred question in Lok Sabha regarding whether the government has any proposal to declare Hamas as a terrorist organisation in India and it’s details, for which minster of state in the ministry of external affairs Meenakshi Lekhi has given an answer which is available on the portals of the ministry and Lok Sabha. K Sudhakaran had also asked whether the Government of Israel raised any demand to the Government of India to declare Hamas as terrorist organisation and details related to it.

An answer given to Mr Sudhakaran under the name of Meenakshi Lekhi has been published like this: “Designation of an organisation as terrorist is covered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and declaring any organisation as terrorist is considered as per the provisions of the Act by the relevant government departments”.

However, when an X (formerly Twitter) user tweeted a screenshot of the answer, Ms Lekhi has responded to that saying “You have been misinformed as I have not signed any paper with this question and this answer.”


Ms Lekhi has also tagged Dr S Jaishankar, her boss in the ministry and Prime Minister’s Office on her tweet.

Later, in a different post, the minister said “Inquiry will reveal the culprit“.

Since the latest war has started in West Asia between Hamas and Israel after the former did a surprise attack on the later on October 7, there have been calls from different corners in India to ban the Palestinian political organisation that controls the blockaded Gaza Strip.

An unstarred question in Indian Parliament is one which is not called for oral answer in the House and on which no supplementary questions can consequently be asked. To such a question, according Parliament rules, a written answer is deemed to have been laid on the Table after the Question Hour by the Minister to whom it is addressed. Only 230 questions can be listed for written answer on a day. In addition, 25 more questions can also be included in the Unstarred List relating to States under President’s Rule and the total number of questions in the list of unstarred questions for a day may not exceed 255 in relaxation of the normal limit of 230 questions.