‘Attack Dog Behaviour’: Shashi Tharoor Slams BJP As US Rejects ‘Destabilising India’ Claims

New Delhi: A day after United States rejected BJP’s claims of backing an agenda to destabilise India, Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday called out the ruling party for its ‘attack dog behaviour’, causing embarrassment to the country.

Taking to his X handle, Tharoor wrote: “It’s clear the BJP neither understands democracy nor diplomacy. They are so blinded by petty politics that they forget the value of a free press and vibrant independent civil society organisations in a democracy, and they are oblivious to a ruling party’s responsibilities in maintaining good relations with key foreign countries. This attack-dog behaviour is an embarrassment to India.”

On Thursday, the BJP alleged that the US deep state colluded with the media portal OCCRP (Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project) and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi to “damage” India’s image.

Party spokesperson Sambit Patra suggested that all this is in conjunction with the US State Department while citing use of OCCRP reports by Gandhi to attack the Adani Group and alleging its proximity with the current dispensation.

He also mentioned about a report by French portal Mediapart which stated that OCCRP was funded by the US Agency for International Development and “other deep state figures” like billionaire investor George Soros. “The deep state had a clear objective to destabilise India by targeting Prime Minister Modi,” he added.

His remarks came days after the US Department of Justice and market regulator Securities and Exchanges Commission filed indictments in US courts, implicating Gautam Adani and several of his business associates for promising over $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure solar energy contracts, conspiring to commit securities and wire fraud, and orchestrating a multi-billion-dollar scheme to defraud US investors and global financial institutions by issuing false and misleading statements.

On Saturday, a spokesperson at the US embassy described the allegations as “disappointing” and asserted that the US government has been a champion of media freedom around the world.

Amid these charges and counters, a 2009 tweet of Tharoor hailing George Soros as ‘old friend’ has also gone viral on X. “Met old friend George Soros, upbeat abt India and curious about our neighbourhood,” he wrote while praising the Hungarian-American billionaire as a ‘concerned world citizen’.