NEW DELHI: Is Shashi Tharoor prioritising national interest over party interest as country’s global envoy or is he being a “super spokesperson of the BJP”? The Thiruvananthapuram MP, who is leading one of the 7 multi-party delegations to expose Pakistan post Pahalgam terror attack, is once again in his party’s crosshairs – this time for his remark that “India breached the Line of Control (Loc) for the first time during the 2016 surgical strike on a terror base.“As expected, Congress rebuttal to this claim has been sharp and strong. The party cited an old statement of S Jaishankar to counter Tharoor’s remarks. Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera posted on X a remark made by Jaishankar to the Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs in October 2016. Khera claimed that Jaishankar had then said: “Professionally done, target-specific, limited-calibre counter-terrorist operations have been carried out across the LoC in the past too, but this is for the first time that the government has made it public.” Drifting apartTharoor and Congress, who have been at loggerheads for sometime now, seem to be fast drifting apart. What started in February as Tharoor’s surprise one-off praise for PM Modi’s US visit has slowly but surely evolved into a full blown controversy with the Congress leader making several statements in praise of NDA government’s diplomacy initiatives and especially its handling of events post the Pahalgam terror attack. The latest controversy erupted after Tharoor, during his visit to Panama, said that in recent years, India’s stance on terrorism had changed and that terrorists now understand they will face consequences for their actions.“What has changed in recent years is that the terrorists have also realised they will have a price to pay; on that, let there be no doubt. 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 launch pad – the Uri strike in September 2016. That was already something we had not done before. Even during the Kargil War, we had not crossed the Line of Control; in Uri, we did, and then came the attack in Pulwama in January 2019. This time, we crossed not only the Line of Control but also the international border, and we struck the terrorist headquarters in Balakot. This time, we have gone beyond both of those. We have not only gone beyond the Line of Control and the international border. We have struck at the Punjabi heartland of Pakistan by hitting terror bases, training centres, and terror headquarters in nine places,” Tharoor had said.This evoked a sharp retort from the Congress. Udit Raj, who has been leading the charge against Tharoor, took to social media to slam the Thiruvananthapuram MP. “How could you denigrate the golden history of Congress by saying that before PM Modi, India never crossed LOC and the International border. In 1965 the Indian Army entered Pakistan at multiple points, which completely surprised the Pakistanis in the Lahore sector. In 1971, India tore Pakistan into two pieces and during the UPA government, several surgical strikes were unleashed, but drum beating was not done to encash it politically. How could you be so dishonest to the party which gave you so much?” the Congress leader wrote on X.Pawan Khera also targeted Tharoor and tagged him on an old interview of Manmohan Singh – in which the former Prime Minister had claimed that at least 6 surgical strikes were carried out against Pakistan during the UPA regime. The Congress had in May 2019 released a list of six UPA-era “surgical strikes” which included Bhattal sector in Poonch (June 19, 2008); Sharda sector, across Neelam River Valley, in Kel (August 30-September 1, 2011); Sawan Patra checkpost (January 6, 2013); Nazapir sector (July 27-28, 2013); Neelam Valley (August 6, 2013); and one on December 23, 2013.” The BJP, which had then called these claims fraudulent, came to Tharoor’s defence and slammed the Congress for attacking a “nationalist” leader within its ranks.BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla alleged the Congress has deployed Udit Raj to attack Tharoor at the behest of Rahul Gandhi at a time when a multi-party Indian delegation, led by the Congress MP, is abroad to expose Pakistan at the international forum.BJP leader Ajay Alok said, “There are two gangs within Congress – one is the ‘Gangs of Rahul Gandhi,’ similar to ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, and the other is the nationalist group with leaders like Shashi Tharoor and P Chidambaram. Today, the Gangs of Gandhi are behaving like the Gangs of Wasseypur. Congress has completely lost its mental balance.”Who is to blame for this divide?Former Congress leader Sanjay Jha blames the party for the present crisis. “The Congress did not give Tharoor his due. In Tharoor, the Congress had a huge talent at its disposal and he along with Chidambaram should have been given prominence in showcasing party’s response to the current standoff,” Sanjay Jha says. What should worry the Congress is the support for Tharoor from one of its senior Kerala leaders, who was recently removed from the post of state chief. Former KPCC chief K Sudhakaran had last week questioned the party’s decision to exclude the name of Tharoor from the list of persons to lead the Centre’s delegations on ‘Operation Sindoor’ and said it was akin to “insulting” him.Sudhakaran said that Tharoor was a competent leader and a loyal member of the party and therefore, in his view, it was not right to sideline the Thiruvananthapuram MP.“All this was an unnecessary controversy is what I feel,” Sudhakaran had said in an interview to a TV channel according to news agency PTI.Should Congress act against Tharoor?Tharoor seems to be unperturbed by the Congress opposition to his stand and the attacks of Udit Raj. He has openly aired his views supporting PM Modi’s diplomacy initiatives despite clear instructions from Mallikarjun Kharge not to speak against the party line.Sanjay Jha feels Congress should not take any action against Tharoor and instead the party should make efforts to talk to him and integrate him. Well, that does not seem likely in the present circumstances – especially with some Congress leaders now taking a more aggressive stand against Tharoor.Perhaps, it is the politics of Kerala that is at the centre of this row. Kerala goes to polls next year and Congress is going all out to defeat the LDF and make a comeback in the state after two consecutive defeats. The fact that Rahul Gandhi’s closest aide K C Venugopal is from Kerala may perhaps have something to do with the power tussle in the state unit and Tharoor’s possible disenchantment with the party.
