I don’t go where I am not invited: Shashi Tharoor

That Congress leader Shashi Tharoor’s defence of the BJP government’s actions against Pakistan with Operation Sindoor didn’t sit well with many in his party is well-known. One party member – the Congress spokesperson and former member of parliament Udit Raj – even dubbed Tharoor BJP’s ‘super spokesperson’ a few weeks ago, when the former diplomat-turned-MP defended the government’s actions as the head of one of the outreach delegations.

Speaking to reporters earlier today, Tharoor admitted to what he called ‘differences of opinion’ with some in the party leadership. “…I do have differences of opinion with some in the Congress leadership. You know what I am talking about, as some of those issues are there in the public domain and have been reported by you (media),” he said to a group of reporters at Thiruvananthapuram. Tharoor did not clarify whether these differences of opinion lay with the national or state leadership. And when asked, he refused to elaborate citing the ongoing bypoll for the Nilambur assembly seat in Kerala. “Today I don’t want to speak it. I need to meet and talk, let the time come, and I will discuss it,” he said.

Despite being a senior Congress leader in the state, and some even viewing him as a possible chief ministerial candidate from the party in next year’s state elections, Tharoor has been conspicuously absent from the Nilambur bypoll campaign. When asked, he was forthright in the admission that he hadn’t been invited to campaign. “I do not go where I am not invited,” he said, but added that hopes the party workers’ efforts will bear fruit and the Congress-led United Democratic Front candidate would win from the seat.

Tharoor has been viewed with much skepticism within his party ever since he agreed to head the government’s outreach delegation to the US, Panama, Guyana, Brazil and Colombia, even though his name hadn’t originally been suggested by his party. His defence of the government’s actions have since then only added more fuel to fire. When asked, Tharoor defended his decision to accept the Centre’s invitation, pointing out that when he became the chairman of the External Affairs Committee of the Parliament, he had made it clear that he would be focused on India’s foreign policy and its national interest and not the foreign policy of the Congress and BJP. “I have not changed my line. When an issue concerning the nation comes up, we are all obligated to work and speak for the country. What I said during Operation Sindoor was my own opinion,” he told reporters today. “The Centre asked for my services. Indeed, my party did not. So, I proudly did my duty as an Indian citizen.”

At one of the outreach events, in Panama, Tharoor had said,

in reference to terror attacks emanating from Pakistan, that “for the first time, India breached the LoC (Line of Control) between India and Pakistan to conduct a surgical strike on a terror base, a launch pad… (after) the Uri strike in September 2016. That was something we had not done before. Even during the Kargil War, we had not crossed the LoC.”

This drew immediate criticism from his party, with Raj dubbing Tharoor BJP’s super spokesperson on X, while asking, “How could you denigrate the golden history of Congress by saying that before PM Modi, India never crossed the LoC and International Border?” Congress’ senior leader and communications head Jairam Ramesh interestingly reposted that tweet. Tharoor responded by pointing out that his comments were in reference to reprisals for terrorist attacks, and not about previous wars, and that “critics and trolls are welcome to distort my views… I genuinely have better things to do…”