New Delhi, May 19 (PTI): The Congress on Monday dismissed as an "absolute lie" Union Minister Kiren Rijiju's reported assertion that that the government did not ask for names for the all-party diplomatic delegations going abroad, and said it was "cheap politics" to not get the names it selected cleared with the opposition party.

Taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the same PM who had abused the Congress publicly in countries such as Australia, the US, Qatar, South Korea and China, is taking the help of the opposition party in these delegations.

"Why didn't the prime minister pick up the phone and speak to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi? Why didn't he have the courtesy to do that? The fact is that our narrative has been punctured and continues to get punctured because of the politics of polarisation in the country," Ramesh told PTI here.

On Saturday, the Congress said it was asked by the government to submit the names of four leaders for the all-party delegations to be sent abroad to explain India's stance on Pakistan-backed terrorism. It nominated Anand Sharma, Gaurav Gogoi, Syed Naseer Hussain, and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring.

Of the four, only Sharma has been included in the seven delegations that will be visiting various countries.

Four Congress leaders -- Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari, Amar Singh and Salman Khurshid -- who were not part of the list forwarded by the Congress have been included in the delegations by the government.

Asked about Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rijiju's reported remarks that the government never asked the Congress to give names, Ramesh said, "That is a lie -- LIE -- absolute lie. He had a conversation in the morning of May 16 with the Congress president and Mr Rahul Gandhi and in pursuance of that conversation the latter wrote to Mr Rijiju suggesting four names."

"At no point of time, the Modi government did the Congress the courtesy of saying that, 'look these are the four names we have selected', what do you have to say about them'," the Congress leader said.

Ramesh accused the BJP and the prime minister of having played "cheap politics" on the issue.

"His (Modi's) image has taken a beating, he is desperate in changing the narrative once again. Our damand is that a Prime Minister-chaired all-party meeting be held and a special session be called to reiterate the resolution of February 1994 and give it fresh meaning, as well as take the nation into confidence," Ramesh said.

He claimed that while India made gains through 'Operation Sindoor', diplomatically it had been hurt as the narrative had changed.

"We have to change the momentum for India. The Congress has always said unity and solidarity is very important. 'Ek desh, Ek sandesh' is very important to deal with terrorism," he said.

Taking a swipe at the BJP, he said, however, it is not "Ek desh, Ek sandesh' for "polarisation and the poison-filled nationalism that the BJP propagates".

On Rijiju's reported remarks that the government did not go by the Congress' internal dynamics in picking members for the delegations, Ramesh said, "No question of internal dynamics. In 2008, Dr Manmohan Singh and his advisors consulted all political parties, that is how the delegations were sent. In the case of Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the 1990s, he was the leader of BJP and P V Narasimha Rao was the PM, so they talked to each other."

Accusing the BJP of spreading hate and bigotry, Ramesh said, "We cannot have one narrative outside and another inside. What is the narrative going out of India? -- Nationalism based on prejudice, nationalism based on bigotry and nationalism based on hate, poison and communal tensions. Is this the message we want to sent to the world?"

On the TMC's criticism of the selection of MPs by the government for the delegations to be sent abroad, Ramesh said he would not comment on other parties but the Congress' intention was to participate in these delegations.

"Out of the four names we had suggested, the government selected only one, a Congress leader who has had extensive experience in foreign affairs and then they added four other names which they had not cleared with the Congress party. That was unfair on the part of the BJP and was cheap politics," Ramesh said.

"They should have cleared the names with the Congress," he said.

The four leaders selected by the government are all experienced and one of them is a former external affairs minister, and they are very articulate and they are participating in the delegations.

"These are a damage control delegations. After 2008 delegations were sent abroad but at that time, everybody had condemned Pakistan's cross border terrorism but today we are back to being hyphenated with Pakistan...The whole narrative has changed. The vishwaguru image has taken a huge beating," he said.

Accusing the government of politicisation of Operation Sindoor, Ramesh pointed to the meeting of only NDA chief ministers has been called.

The seven delegations led by Baijayant Panda, Ravi Shankar Prasad (both BJP), Sanjay Kumar Jha (JDU), Shrikant Shinde (Shiv Sena), Shashi Tharoor (Congress), Kanimozhi (DMK) and Supriya Sule (NCP-SP) will visit a total of 32 countries and the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Each delegation comprises seven or eight political leaders and is assisted by former diplomats.

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Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.

The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.

Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.

Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.

What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.

"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,

which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.

"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.

"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.

"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.

In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.

The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.

With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.

Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).