'Some leaders stopped from...': PM's veiled jab at Congress as Shashi Tharoor skips Operation Sindoor debate
PM Modi's remarks came as Shashi Tharoor skipped the Parliament debate on Operation Sindoor and the Pahalgam attack.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday seemed to have referenced the alleged rift between Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor and his party Congress. Addressing the Parliament during a debate on Operation Sindoor, PM Modi said that some Congress leaders were "stopped from speaking".
"Those who claim to be the big leaders of Congress are pained by the fact that India's position was put forth before the world. That might be the reason some leaders were not even allowed to speak in the House," PM Modi said, as Shashi Tharoor skipped the Parliament debate.
When asked about PM Modi's remark, Shashi Tharoor refused to comment, saying he wouldn't say anything on "this subject or the debate".
Shashi Tharoor was a key part of the government's global outreach on Operation Sindoor, launched on May 7 to target terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Tharoor one of the seven delegations that went abroad, representing India's stance against terrorism. The seven-member delegation he was part of visited Panama, Guyana, Colombia, Brazil and the United States in June.
However, Tharoor was not among the leaders whose names Congress had suggested for being part of the global outreach on Operation Sindoor. Out of the names suggested -- Anand Sharma, Gaurav Gogoi, Syed Naseer Hussain, and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, only Anand Sharma's name made it to the list of leaders part of the delegations.
Tharoor's remarks during the Panama leg of the Op Sindoor outreach had sparked a big controversy, with Congress leader Udit Raj calling him a "super spokesperson" for the BJP.
“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 2015 – that was already something we had not done before," Tharoor had said in Panama.
Lashing out at Tharoor's remarks, Udit Raj had asked in a post on X how the Congress leader could "denigrate the golden history of Congress by saying that before PM Modi, India never crossed LoC and International border." Later, Congress general secretary in-charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh also reposted Udit Raj's tweet.
Months after Operation Sindoor's launch, a debate on it took place in Parliament, but Shashi Tharoor did not take part. When asked about it, Tharoor had conveyed a cryptic message: “Maunvrat, Maunvrat”.
