New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said he is currently focused on delivering India’s message and stance on terrorism and will have the opportunity to speak with his colleagues once he returns home.
His response came after he was asked about his partymen taking a dig at him over his remarks abroad, as he leads one of the seven all-party delegations on Operation Sindoor.
The four-time MP has been exposing Pakistan’s involvement in terrorist attacks on Indian soil. The global outreach was launched after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, which was retaliated by India’s Operation Sindoor.
Tharoor’s delegation has now reached Brazil. When he was asked about his party colleagues taking a dig at him, Tharoor said, “I think this is a time for us to focus on our mission. Undoubtedly, in a thriving democracy, there are bound to be comments and criticisms, but I think at this point we can’t afford to dwell on them.”
He pointed out: “When we get back to India, no doubt we’ll have our chance to speak to our colleagues, critics, media there. But right now we’re focused on the countries we’re coming to and getting the message out to the people here.”
Tharoor’s statements on Indian approach during the India-Pakistan conflict was appreciated by many. However, his colleagues in the Congress were not impressed.
Earlier, the Congress had extended its full support to the Centre in Operation Sindoor. But now, it has asked the government to explain why the ceasefire reached when Pakistan had gone on the back foot, and how the US was involved in the truce.
In Panama, Tharoor said: “What has changed in recent years is that the terrorists have also realised they will have a price to pay. On that, let there be no doubt. When, for the first time, India breached the Line of Control between India and Pakistan to conduct a surgical strike on a terror base, a launchpad – the Uri strike in September 2015. That was already something we had not done before.”
He said: “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.”
When he began showering praise on PM Narendra Modi, the Congress didn’t like it. In one of his posts on X, senior Congress leader Pawan Khera quoted a passage from Tharoor’s book, ‘The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi and His India’, to take a swipe at him.
Responding to the swipes, Tharoor wrote: “…But as usual, critics and trolls are welcome to distort my views and words as they see fit. I genuinely have better things to do.”
