Hardeep Puri vs Shashi Tharoor Over 2009 Dinner With George Soros In US

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has responded to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor's post on X that he met US billionaire George Soros at a formal dinner at Mr Puri's New York home when the Union Minister was India's Ambassador and Permanent Representative at the United Nations.

Mr Puri indicated the Congress MP did not show the whole picture - he said it was Mr Tharoor himself who gave the list of invitees for the dinner, and the "gentleman in question was among the benefactors of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, and the Minister of State was keen to meet him."

Mr Tharoor was the Minister of State for External Affairs at that time.

"In retrospect, it is clear that the name was included because the gentleman in question was among the benefactors of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, and the Minister of State was keen to meet him," Mr Puri said.

"Language has frequently been accorded pride of place amongst major arts of deception. Some of my friends in the Congress party excel in obfuscation; but they tweet at their own peril," Mr Puri, the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, said in a post on X.

The matter began on December 15 when an X user who identified himself as a BJP worker from Karnataka showed Mr Tharoor an old post from 2009 in which Mr Tharoor wrote, "Met old friend George Soros, upbeat about India and curious about our neighbourhood. He's far more than an investor: a concerned world citizen."

George Soros is a controversial figure for Indians due to the anti-India rhetoric he used a few years ago. The ruling BJP has often accused top leaders of the opposition Congress for allegedly colluding with George Soros to destabilise the country, including using the West's deep state -- agencies and personnel, academics and think tanks -- which finds expression in the western media.

Responding to the BJP worker, Mr Tharoor in a long post on X said he met George Soros "at the home of then-Ambassador and now-BJP Minister Hardeep Puri when I was visiting NY as MoS MEA."

"Amb Puri had invited a number of prominent Americans for a dinner discussion with me (and that was entirely appropriate). I have not been in touch with Mr Soros since, nor be with me, and my old relationship never had any political connotations," Mr Tharoor said.

Mr Tharoor said George Soros was a friend in the social sense. "I have never received or solicited a penny from him or any of his foundations for myself or any institution or cause I supported," the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram said.

On Friday, Mr Puri shot back at Mr Tharoor with a long post on X that added context to the situation when George Soros came to a dinner where the two then-diplomats were present.

"My friend Dr Shashi Tharoor ji, who was a student in St Stephen's College in DU when I was a member of the teaching faculty, had arrived in New York as MoS External Affairs shortly after I was posted as India's Ambassador and Permanent Representative at UN. I hosted him and his companion at a briefing breakfast on 11 October 2009, and then for dinner on the evening of 12 October 2009," Mr Puri said.

"Since I was just a few months old in the city then, but Dr Tharoor had spent considerable time in New York, I did not choose the list of invitees for the dinner. It was given to me by Minister Tharoor," he said.

"Apart from members of the diplomatic fraternity I noticed the name of Mr Soros in the list and I clearly remember bringing it up with the then Minister, who had also met him in May 2009 and even tweeted about it. That is the only time in my life when I met Mr Soros. When Dr Tharoor tweeted about the dinner, I called him on 15 December to remind him of the context. Normally he is very prompt, but this time he didn't take my call," the Union Minister said.

"In retrospect, it is clear that the name was included because the gentleman in question was among the benefactors of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, and the Minister of State was keen to meet him," Mr Puri said.

All this campaign against backsliding of democracy in India and capture of institutions curbs on freedom of press. In other words, create a narrative globally, which would, to the extent it can be effective on the ground, damage India and India's prospects of attracting foreign investment and everything else by giving the impression that India is sliding into a kind of a political and administrative system which is not very conducive to Western values," he said.  

India's former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal, in an interview to NDTV on December 9, had said there seems to be a campaign going on against backsliding of democracy in India, capture of institutions, and curbs on freedom of press.

"In other words, create a narrative globally, which would, to the extent it can be effective on the ground, damage India and India's prospects of attracting foreign investment and everything else by giving the impression that India is sliding into a kind of a political and administrative system which is not very conducive to Western values," Mr Sibal said.