NEW DELHI: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor flagged on Friday that 115 of the 315 speakers cleared by the external affairs ministry for the Bharat Summit in Hyderabad ended up being refused entry to India or having their visas cancelled, and said it is a shame that a proud democracy has become so insecure that it must stifle any voice it fears will be critical.

Tharoor, who is in Hyderabad to attend the summit, pointed to a "disappointing footnote" to the Bharat Summit proceedings.

"When I got to Hyderabad, I learned that 115 of the 315 speakers whom the External Affairs Ministry had cleared for the event ended up being refused entry to India or having their visas cancelled, apparently on the instructions of the Ministry of Home Affairs," he alleged.

It is completely unclear under what provision of law the government has taken such a drastic step, but it is obviously impossible to reverse it since the conference concludes on Saturday, Tharoor said in a post on X.

"What a shame that a proud democracy has become so insecure that it must stifle any voices it fears will be critical!" the member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram said.

Meanwhile, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy hit out at the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday over their criticism of the summit, accusing the two parties of blindly opposing the Congress government's programmes.

The state government would use the Bharat Summit to showcase Telangana as a convenient investment destination and highlight its potential, he said.

The two-day summit, backed by the Telangana government, will see policymakers, political leaders, thinkers and changemakers from the Global South and the Global North take part.

The summit is being held to mark 80 years of India's independence and the 137th birth anniversary of the country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.