New Delhi: Ever since Shashi Tharoor praised the Indian government’s Operation Sindoor, he has triggered a war of words between the Congress and BJP.
In the latest exchange over the Thiruvananthapuram MP, Congress leader Udit Raj mocked Tharoor as a “BJP super spokesperson” after the latter said that India had crossed the Line of Control for the first time in 2016, post BJP coming to power in the Centre.
“My dear Shashi Tharoor, Alas! I could prevail upon PM 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,” Raj, who heads Congress’ wing for unorganised workers, wrote on X.
The BJP defended Tharoor, saying that he was being attacked by his own party for keeping national interest above the Gandhi family.
“Shashi Tharoor is being attacked at the behest of Rahul Gandhi because Shashi Tharoor kept India first, not (Gandhi) family. He talked about national interest, not his party’s interest. He is being attacked because he kept national policy above the vote bank (politics),” BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla told PTI.
“Today, the Congress, while talking like Pakistan’s DG ISPR (Ahmed Sharif Choudhry), is launching missiles at its own leader (Shashi Tharoor). It won’t say a word against Pakistan. It will give clean chit to Pakistan,” Poonawalla added.
Tharoor was speaking at an event in Panama, as a representative of one of Indian government’s multi-party diplomatic delegations sent to various countries to explain India’s stance and actions in the aftermath of the deadly Pahalgam terror attack.
Raj’s post, tagging a video of Tharoor’s speech, was re-tweeted by Congress Media and Publicity Department chairperson Pawan Khera.
Khera also shared a video report on former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s interview in which he said “many surgical strikes were conducted under UPA on ‘X’.”
