Shashi Tharoor in trouble again for his comments on Jawaharlal Nehru

NEW DELHI: Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor appears to have waded into fresh trouble with his comments on Jawaharlal Nehru, which his party did not approve of.

His remarks in the presence of British MP Bikhu Parekh, who had earlier made a critical assessment of the policies of Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi at a lecture here yesterday, have raised the hackles of his partymen.

"That Lord Parekh and I have fought alike on issues of India's identity and India's domestic arrangements as well... So we do, I am afraid, come from a similar outlook of the world.

"I think his (is a) very clear summary for us of the way in which Indian foreign policy drew from our founding fathers' sense of our civilisational heritage, the extraordinary contribution of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru to the articulation of that civilisational heritage, the manner in which that both enhanced India's standing in the world and gave us the negative reputation for conducting foreign policy as a sort of moralistic running commentary on other people's behaviour."

Congress today expressed surprise at Tharoor's comments seen as criticism of Nehru's foreign policy.

"I am very surprised by the style of Tharoor. He is a member of the Congress and his responsibility is to carry forward the legacy of Pandit Nehru and not to be critical of it," party spokesman Shakeel Ahmed told PTI.

Another senior Congress leaders said on condition of anonymity that the party has "taken note" of his comments made over a period of time.