Pawan Khera jabs Tharoor for surgical strikes comment, quotes from his book

Pawan Khera shared an excerpt from Shashi Tharoor's 2018 book, 'The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi and His India', to take a swipe at the latter's remarks on surgical strikes

Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera on Thursday took a dig at fellow party leader Shashi Tharoor after the latter clarified his comments about surgical strikes conducted under the BJP-led NDA government.

 

In a post on X, Khera shared an excerpt from Tharoor’s 2018 book  'The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi and His India', where he had accused the Modi government of "repeatedly using the army in its political propaganda".

 

"I agree with what Dr Shashi Tharoor writes about surgical strikes in his book 'The Paradoxical Prime Minister'," Pawan Khera captioned the post.

  Recently, Tharoor, who was leading an all-party delegation in Panama, talked about the 2016 surgical strikes, saying “that was something we had not done before". 

 

  The remark did not go down well with some of the Congress leaders, who accused him of being the ruling BJP’s “spokesperson”. Congress leader Udit Raj said, “Alas! I could prevail upon PM Modi to declare you as super spokesperson of BJP, even declaring as foreign minister before landing in India.” 

  This tweet from Udit Raj was reposted by some senior Congress leaders, including Pawan Khera and Jairam Ramesh. 

  Tharoor, however, clarified that his comments were taken out of context. “After a long and successful day in Panama, I have to wind up at midnightvhere with departure for Bogota, Colombia in six hours, so I don't really have time for this - but anyway: For those zealots fulminating about my supposed ignorance of Indian valour across the LoC: in the past (sic),” he said in a post on X.

  "I was clearly and explicitly speaking only about reprisals for terrorist attacks and not about previous wars; & my remarks were preceded by a reference to the several attacks that have taken place in recent years alone, during which previous Indian responses were both restrained and constrained by our responsible respect for the LoC and the IB. But as usual, critics and trolls are welcome to distort my views and words as they see fit. I genuinely have better things to do. Goodnight (sic)," he added. 

 

Tharoor is currently leading an all-party delegation to countries like the United States, Panama, Guyana, Brazil, and Colombia as part of the government’s diplomatic outreach following Operation Sindoor