{"id":60220,"date":"2026-02-11T21:22:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/?p=60220"},"modified":"2026-02-11T21:22:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:52:20","slug":"hardeep-singh-puri-rejects-rahul-gandhis-allegations-calls-it-attempt-to-malign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/hardeep-singh-puri-rejects-rahul-gandhis-allegations-calls-it-attempt-to-malign\/","title":{"rendered":"Hardeep Singh Puri rejects Rahul Gandhi\u2019s allegations, calls it \u2018attempt to malign\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New Delhi: Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday rejected allegations levelled by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, terming them an \u201cattempt to malign\u201d him.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to reports linking his name to US financier Jeffrey Epstein, Puri said his interaction with Epstein was limited and took place only as part of a delegation of the International Peace Institute (IPI).<\/p>\n<p>Clarifying his position, Puri said that during his eight-year tenure in New York, he met Epstein only three or four times. He added that Epstein had even described him as \u201ctwo-faced\u201d because his views did not align with his own.<\/p>\n<p>Launching a sharp attack on Rahul Gandhi, Puri said the Congress leader had \u201cdialled the wrong number this time.\u201d He argued that as a diplomat, he had to engage with a wide range of individuals in an official capacity.<\/p>\n<p>He cited an instance of having held talks with LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran in the past, adding that such meetings did not imply endorsement of their views.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Delhi: Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday rejected allegations levelled by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, terming them an \u201cattempt to malign\u201d him. Responding to reports linking his name to US financier Jeffrey Epstein, Puri said his interaction with Epstein was limited and took place only as part of a delegation of the International [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,37,21],"tags":[13086,13085],"class_list":["post-60220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-national","category-political-news","tag-calls-it-attempt-to-malign","tag-hardeep-singh-puri-rejects-rahul-gandhis-allegations"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hardeep Singh Puri rejects Rahul Gandhi\u2019s allegations, calls it \u2018attempt to malign\u2019 - PunjabENews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/hardeep-singh-puri-rejects-rahul-gandhis-allegations-calls-it-attempt-to-malign\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hardeep Singh Puri rejects Rahul Gandhi\u2019s allegations, calls it \u2018attempt to malign\u2019 - PunjabENews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New Delhi: Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday rejected allegations levelled by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, terming them an \u201cattempt to malign\u201d him. 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