New Delhi: The Congress leader Pawan Khera posted online a passage from Shashi Tharoor's book: 'The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi and His India' after Tharoor praised Modi administration’s response to terrorism.
Tharoor is currently leading an Indian delegation as part of the Centre's global outreach after the Pahalgam massacre and Operation Sindoor.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP praised the Modi government during the visit to Panama, ahead of the delegation’s trip to Bogota, according to NDTV.
Khera later posted a photograph of a passage from Tharoor’s book where the author accused the Modi government of ‘repeatedly using the army in its political propaganda’.
Tharoor has written in the book: ‘The shameless exploitation of the 2016 surgical strikes' along the Line of Control with Pakistan, and of a military raid in hot pursuit of rebels in Myanmar, as party election tool-something the Congress had never done despite having authorized several such strikes earlier-marked particularly disgraceful dilution of the principle that national Security issues require both discretion and non-partisanship.’
In a veiled criticism, Khera said he agreed with what Tharoor wrote about surgical strikes in the book 'The Paradoxical Prime Minister'.
Following Khera’ post, Congress's communications chief Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at Tharoor saying ‘Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive...’
Responding to these posts on X, Tharoor reportedly wrote: ‘I was clearly and explicitly speaking only about reprisals for terrorist attacks and not about previous wars; & my remarks were preceded by a reference to the several attacks that have taken place in recent years alone, during which previous Indian responses were both restrained and constrained by our responsible respect for the LoC and the IB. 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. Goodnight.’
Tharoor told a gathering in Panama that terrorists realised in recent years that they would have a price to pay, adding that ‘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’.
Responding to Tharoor’ remarks, Congress leader Udit Raj said Tharoor was ‘the super spokesperson of the BJP’, adding that he was flattering PM Modi better than BJP leaders.
‘Does he (Shashi Tharoor) even know what the earlier governments used to do? ... They (the Central government) are taking credit for the Indian Armed Forces. Shashi Tharoor has become the spokesperson for the publicity stunts of the BJP’ Raj reportedly said.