Unease in Congress over Tharoor's remarks on surgical strikes

The AICC appeared to be blowing hot and cold trying to decipher Shashi Tharoor's comments as part of global outreach delegations amid growing whispers within the party that two AICC general secretaries, wary of Tharoor's popularity, are working to prompt the leadership to drag the Kerala MP on the line of fire.

A day after praising the Opposition delegates, of which Tharoor is the leading light, for "effectively putting forward and protecting the Indian interests", the AICC spokespersons on Wednesday sulked and fumed over Tharoor telling his foreign audience about the effective anti-terror measures against Pakistan undertaken by the Modi regime, including the 2016 surgical strike, which he said, India had not done before.

After Tharoor's latest remarks, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera claimed the Manmohan Singh-led UPA too had conducted "many surgical strikes" while tagging Tharoor in his post on X. "Former PM Manmohan Singh: Many Surgical Strikes Conducted Under UPA.... CC @ Shashi Tharoor".


What appeared to have particularly irked Congress was a part of Tharoor's speech in Panama, during which he said: "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 launchpad - the Uri strike in September 2016. That was already something we had not done before".

A second-rung party functionary Udit Raj, who is a former BJP MP and joined the Congress after the saffron party denied him a ticket, alleged that Tharoor was acting as "BJP government's spokesperson".