New Delhi [India], May 29: Congress leader Pawan Khera has sparked a fresh controversy by sharing an excerpt from fellow party MP Shashi Tharoor’s 2018 book The Paradoxical Prime Minister, in which Tharoor criticized the BJP’s use of the 2016 surgical strikes as an election campaign tool.
Khera’s post on X (formerly Twitter) read: “I agree with that Dr @ShashiTharoor who wrote about surgical strikes in his book in 2018 – ‘The Paradoxical Prime Minister’.” The highlighted excerpt accused the BJP of the “shameless exploitation” of the strikes for electoral gain—contrasting with the Congress’ past restraint on national security matters.
The excerpt reads:
“The shameless exploitation of the 2016 surgical strikes along the Line of Control with Pakistan, and a military raid in hot pursuit of rebels in Myanmar, as party election tool—something the Congress had never done despite having authorized several such strikes earlier—marked a particularly disgraceful dilution of the principle that national security issues require both discretion and non-partisanship.”
Khera’s post is seen as a subtle rebuke of Tharoor’s recent remarks made in Panama, where the MP praised India’s assertive military responses under the Modi government, including the 2016 Uri surgical strike and the 2019 Balakot airstrike.
Tharoor, responding to the backlash, issued a clarification via X, stating:
“For those zealots fulminating about my supposed ignorance of Indian valour across the LoC in the past, I was clearly and explicitly speaking only about reprisals for terrorist attacks and not about previous wars.” He emphasized that his comments were context-specific, referencing recent terror attacks and India’s response to them.
However, criticism from within the party continues to mount. Congress leader Udit Raj called Tharoor a “spokesperson for the publicity stunts of the BJP”. His remarks were later endorsed by Pawan Khera and Jairam Ramesh, indicating growing internal tensions within the Congress.
Notably, Tharoor was not among the official names recommended by the Congress to the government for the ongoing multi-party international delegation, which includes stops in the US, Guyana, Panama, and Colombia. His selection and statements abroad have further fueled speculation about ideological divisions within the party’s senior ranks.
The controversy reflects deeper disagreements within Congress over how to approach national security issues, particularly regarding the narrative around surgical strikes and India’s evolving counter-terrorism posture.