Is Shashi Tharoor’s breakup with Congress inevitable?
The Congress is not hiding its chagrin at Shashi Tharoor anymore. The Thiruvananthapuram MP has upset the party again with his remarks on the 2016 surgical strikes. His recent unfettered support to the Centre on Operation Sindoor also did not go down well with Congress, which perceives it as straying from the party line
The cracks between Shashi Tharoor and the Congress are out within the beginning. The Thiruvananthapuram MP has been within the road of fire since his unfettered toughen to the Central government led by the Bharatiya Janata Event (BJP) on Operation Sindoor, the retaliatory militia strikes by India against Pakistan within the wake of the Pahalgam fear assault.
Now, Tharoor has irked his party from in a single other nation. His remarks that India crossed the Line of Maintain watch over (LoC) for the first time in September 2016 below the BJP-led Centre possess now not sat successfully with the Huge Susceptible Event, which has countered his statements.
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The disgruntlement between Tharoor and the Congress has emerged publicly in most up-to-date years. As speculations in regards to the regular diplomat’s future within the party upward thrust, will he soar ship to the BJP?
Let’s rob a nearer seek for.
Tharoor, who's main one among the seven all-party delegations despatched in a single other nation to position forth India’s stand on terrorism, has stirred a row with his comments in Panama.
Speaking about terrorism emanating from Pakistan at an Indian diaspora tournament, the Congress MP acknowledged, “What has modified in most up-to-date years is that the terrorists possess moreover realised they will possess a tag to pay… For the first time, India breached the LoC (Line of Maintain watch over) between India and Pakistan to conduct a surgical strike on a fear rotten, a launch pad… (after) the Uri strike in September 2016. That became something we had now not accomplished before. Even for the length of the Kargil Battle, we had now not crossed the LoC.”
He moreover mentioned the Balakot strikes by India after the 2019 Pulwama fear assault. “We now not handiest crossed the LoC, we moreover crossed the worldwide border (IB) and struck a terrorist headquarters. This time (in Operation Sindoor), we went beyond every of these… We struck within the Punjabi heartland of Pakistan.”
The Congress has maintained that surgical strikes were moreover conducted for the length of the UPA government, nonetheless were now not publicised.
An RTI reply by the Director Similar outdated of Defense pressure Operations (DGMO) had, nonetheless, acknowledged: “Army would not possess any data relating to surgical strikes if conducted before September 29, 2016.”
CCing Tharoor on X, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera shared a media document of S Jaishankar, the then foreign secretary, telling a parliamentary committee in October 2016 that “aim-particular, restricted-calibre, counter-terrorist operations" had been conducted by the Army all over the LoC within the previous too.
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Udit Raj, a Congress spokesperson, moreover took a jibe at Tharoor by asking Top Minister Narendra Modi to construct up the leader a “tremendous spokesperson of the BJP”.
Union minister Kiren Rijiju came to Tharoor’s defence, calling Congress’ reaction “political desperation”.
What does the Congress party need & How grand they truthfully cope with the nation? Should the Indian MPs walk to foreign nation and announce against India and its Top Minister?
There’s limit to political desperation! https://t.co/JiuYqpW2tN— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) May 28, 2025
As the row escalated, Tharoor took to X on Thursday (May 29) to elaborate his remarks, announcing he became “clearly and explicitly talking handiest about reprisals for terrorist attacks and now not about outdated wars”.
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Concentrated on “critics and trolls”, he wrote that his remarks were “preceded by reference to the completely different attacks which possess taken situation in most up-to-date years on my own, for the length of which outdated Indian responses were every restrained and constrained by our accountable respect for the LoC and the IB.”
After a protracted and worthwhile day in Panama, i want to lastly end up at midnightvhere with departure for Bogota, Colombia in six hours, so I don’t truly possess time for this — nonetheless anyway: For these zealots fulminating about my supposed lack of knowledge of Indian valour all over the LoC: in tge…— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 29, 2025
Hours after his tweet, Khera shared a net page from Tharoor’s book The Paradoxical Top Minister, highlighting the lines where he accused the BJP government of using surgical strikes as a “political instrument”.
I accept as true with that Dr @ShashiTharoor who wrote about surgical strikes in his book in 2018 - ‘The Paradoxical Top Minister’. #ReadingNow pic.twitter.com/hAhsfwH0JT— Pawan Khera
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