Shashi Tharoor Expects to Sort out Differences with Congress Leadership “Behind Closed Doors”
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 19: The Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday played down his alleged difference of opinion with many of his party leaders over multiple issues and expressed the confidence that the issues could be sorted out within the party framework.
Replying to a question by the media persons, Mr Tharoor said he had been “loyal to the Congress for 16 years and if there are any differences, they can be sorted “behind closed doors” with the people concerned.” If there are “differences of opinion it is only with only some elements of leadership… but this is hardly the time to discuss such matters,” he said. “If there are any differences, it should be discussed behind closed doors with the people concerned and that is where I want to leave it,” he added.
The government’s move to pick Mr Tharoor as part of its outreach programme to multiple nations on Operation Sindoor had peeved his party. Since his return, there has been another controversy over campaigning for a by-election in Kerala. Reports said Mr Tharoor had not campaigned for the party candidate in Nilambur because, by his own admission, he had not been invited.
“It was a response to a Malayalam question… I said I wished the Congress candidate well. I wish him all success. He is a friend of mine. In fact, as far as I am concerned there is no doubt that the hard work of Congress workers deserve the reward of victory,” Mr Tharoor said underscoring that he did campaign for the candidate.
Asked how he would define his present relationship with the Congress, Mr Tharoor said, “I have been someone who has stayed with the party and been loyal for the last 16 years”. He said over this period he has also developed close bonds with many colleagues and party workers. After his selection for the government outreach programme, Mr Tharoor has been targeted by a section in the Congress over his comments on Operation Sindoor. He has been called a “super spokesperson” for the BJP’s “publicity stunts” and accused of flattering Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Prior to that, the Kerala unit of the party had aired multiple grievances against him but they were told to stand down by the Central leadership in view of the need to keep up a united front ahead of the state elections.
Mr Tharoor also lambasted some leaders in the US for giving warm greetings to the Pakistan army chief Asim Munir reminding the country of Osama Bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda terrorist boss behind the 2001 World Trade Centre attack that killed nearly 3,000 people, and who was found hiding near a Pakistan Army camp.
“Some Senators and Congressmen who met the Pak delegation did… but people in the US could not have forgotten the Osama episode so quickly. Pak’s culpability in hiding this man until he was found… near an Army camp cannot be so easily forgiven by the Americans,” he said.
The warning was subtle but clear – do not trust a duplicitous Pak administration, given it had harboured the man responsible for the worst terror attack in US history, and also supports terrorist attacks on India. Mr Tharoor said he hoped President Trump took the opportunity to warn the Army chief against ‘financing, arming, training, and dispatching terrorists to our country (India) from their soil’.
“I hope, while the General was being wined and dined, he got all these messages… because that would also be in America’s interest,” the Thiruvananthapuram MP said. The Trump-Munir lunch has been viewed with alarm in India, particularly because the Army chief’s outrageous and incendiary comments – about Kashmir being Pak’s “jugular vein” before the Pahalgam terror attack.
