Shashi Tharoor slams ‘zealots’ after Congress flak over surgical strike remark

In a sharp clapback to jabs from his own party for supporting the Centre over cross-border strikes, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor accused “critics and trolls” of distorting his views and words and said that he had “better things to do”.

Tharoor, who is leading a multi-party delegation as part of the Centre’s global outreach on terrorism, came under severe criticism from Congress over his remark that India crossed the LoC to carry out surgical strikes “for the first time” under the Narendra Modi government in 2016.

Clarifying his remark, Tharoor said he was referring to reprisals for terrorist attacks and not about previous wars.

The MP from Kerala, who has been involved in an escalating tussle with his party, stressed that previous Indian responses to terror attacks were restrained and constrained due to respect for the LoC and the International Border.

“For those zealots fulminating about my supposed ignorance of Indian valour across the LoC in the past,” Tharoor posted on X.

“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,” he further said.

Tharoor’s remarks, made in Panama City, has only intensified his rift with the Congress. The party had explicitly made its displeasure known after Tharoor accepted the Centre’s Operation Sindoor global outreach invitation.

“What has changed in recent years is that the terrorists have also realised they will have a price to pay. For the first time, India breached the Line of Control between India and Pakistan to conduct a surgical strike on a terror base, a launch pad, following the Uri strike,” Tharoor said on Wednesday.

As soon as his remarks went viral, the Congress wasted no time in posting its riposte.

The Congress has maintained that six surgical strikes were conducted during the UPA regime, but those were never publicised.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera posted an old interview of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in which he said that the UPA government had also carried out surgical strikes.

“Former PM Manmohan Singh: Many Surgical Strikes Conducted Under UPA CC @ShashiTharoor,” Khera posted. The post was shared by many Congress leaders, Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh.