Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who is leading a multi-party delegation to five countries including the United States, to put forward Government of India’s perspective on the recent military action—Operation Sindoor—against Pakistan, on Wednesday came under fire from his party yet again.
The Congress took swipes at Tharoor for his reported remarks abroad praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Tharoor claimed India breached the Line of Control (Loc) for the first time during the 2016 surgical strike. The Congress accused Tharoor for denigrating the grand old party’s history and legacy and asked the BJP to make him their super spokesman.
The BJP however praised Tharoor, who served as Union Minister in Manmohan Singh-led UPA Governments, remarking the Lok Sabha MP from Kerala kept national interest above his party.
The ruling party at the Centre alleged that the Congress has been attacking Tharoor at the behest of the party’s first family—the Gandhis.
India carried out airstrikes in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir on May 7 to avenge the Pahalgam terror attack that left 26 innocents dead. The Union Government constituted several delegations thereafter with members of Parliamentarians, diplomats and academicians to brief the world on India. The Congress has distanced itself from Tharoor and said, “When Tharoor saab speaks, it is not the party’s opinion”. Even earlier Tharoor was castigated by his party for accepting the Modi government’s decision to name him as a delegate when the Congress claimed to have forwarded other names of other leaders.
Tharoor, however, ignored the party and went ahead leading a seven member delegation to US, Panama, Guyana, Brazil and Colombia. While speaking in Panama the diplomat-turned-politician said that when “for the first time” India breached the LoC between India and Pakistan to conduct a surgical strike in 2016 on a terror base, which was something India had not done before.
Congress leader Udit Raj slammed Tharoor for his reported remarks and said the latter should immediately be made the “super spokesperson of the BJP” and accused him of denigrating Congress’ history.
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla alleged the Congress has deployed Udit Raj to attack Tharoor at the behest of Rahul Gandhi at a time when a multi-party Indian delegation, led by the Congress MP, is abroad to expose Pakistan at the international forum.
He said the Congress, “which is launching missiles at its own leader”, won’t say a word against Pakistan. Addressing a gathering in Panama City Tharoor said terrorists targeting India have realised in recent years that they will have to pay. “We have suffered attack after attack for almost four decades. It is just not acceptable for us to continue to bear the pain, the grief, the wounds, the losses and then merely go and tell the international community, look at what is happening to us. Please help us. Please put pressure on the perpetrators to actually identify and prosecute the criminals,” he said when he also referred to the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks,
“Even during the Kargil War, we had not crossed the Line of Control; in Uri, we did, and then came the attack in Pulwama in January 2019. This time, we crossed not only the Line of Control but also the international border, and we struck the terrorist headquarters in Balakot. This time, we have gone beyond both of those. We have not only gone beyond the Line of Control and the international border. We have struck at the Punjabi heartland of Pakistan by hitting terror bases, training centres, terror headquarters in nine places,” Tharoor said.
Tagging Tharoor’s remarks, Udit Raj said, “My dear Shashi Tharoor, Alas! I could prevail upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declare you as super spokesperson of BJP, even declaring (you) as foreign minister before landing in India. How could you denigrate the golden history of Congress by saying that before PM Modi , India never crossed LoC and International border.” “In 1965 Indian Army entered Pakistan at multiple points, which completely surprised the Pakistanis in the Lahore sector. In 1971, India tore Pakistan in two pieces and during UPA government several surgical strikes were unleashed but drum beating was not done to encash (it) politically,” Udit mentioned through social media platforms.
His posts were also reposted or shared by Congress’ media and publicity department head Pawan Khera.
Taking a swipe at Tharoor, Khera posted a picture which shows officers of the 4 Sikh Regiment posing outside a captured Pakistani police station in Burki, Lahore district.
“This image is from the Battle of Burki (also known as the Battle of Lahore, 1965), a significant engagement during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, fought between Indian infantry units and Pakistani armoured forces,” Khera said. In another post, Khera put out media report which quoted former prime minister Manmohan Singh as saying that India carried out multiple surgical strikes under the UPA rule.
Last month also, Udit had hit out at Tharoor for his reported “no country has 100-per cent foolproof intelligence” remarks. He said how did Tharoor become the BJP’s lawyer and was giving the ruling party a “clean chit” on the Pahalgam terror attack. Tharoor had hit back at Udit Raj, saying the latter is a former BJP MP and “is better qualified to understand who speaks for the BJP”.