Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday lashed out at the BJP for criticising him for describing External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's UN address as a "campaign" speech and alleged that the saffron party "politicised" foreign platforms.
Hitting out at the Congress leader, BJP had earlier said the Opposition party defied a convention of all political parties speaking in the same voice on India's stand abroad.
"BJP wants...And criticise me, I will also be equally harsh and say, I must say that they have really disappointed all true patriots by the way in which they have politicised foreign platforms. They have done so starting with the Prime Minister and now ending with the Foreign Minister," Tharoor told reporters here. "This is not the way in which India should conduct its foreign policy. I am quite confident that if the Congress party comes back to power, we will not fight our political battles abroad," he said.
Questioning whether Swaraj's address was a UN speech or BJP slogans, Tharoor had tweeted that she devoted the first half of her speech mentioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for a "New India" and discussing programmes as the Swachh Bharat Mission.
"Bit rich to be criticised by the BJP for describing Sushma Swaraj's speech as a campaign speech. She mentioned Narendra Modi 10 times during her address and spoke about/on behalf of India only five times. If you use the UN as a political platform you can't hide behind the flag," Tharoor said.
Tharoor told reporters here he was normally very supportive of the Union Government in international forums because "national interests transcend political interests."
"Unfortunately, this BJP Government has been completely ignoring this time-honoured principle.
We have had the Prime Minister attacking his predecessors on foreign soil. He has been going around, saying that the Congress has let the country down abroad," he said.
Criticising Swaraj, he alleged that she made a "campaign speech" instead of speaking to foreign delegates at the UN forum. "Here is a Foreign Minister goes to an international podium like the United Nations General Assembly and instead of speaking to the delegates from other countries, she delivers a blatant campaign speech in Hindi...," he said.