Operation Sindoor: Tharoor praises Modi, gets dig from Congress

New Delhi: Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor has come under the scanner of his own party after his remarks at an all-party delegation meeting with the Indian community in Panama went viral.

In the meeting, Tharoor had been outspoken about the importance of India's fight back against Pakistan's sponsored terrorism, while praising the Narendra Modi government's actions in different retaliatory strikes such as Uri and Operation Sindoor.

This was seen by the Congress leadership as his support for the ruling government and thus brought stern remarks from them.

Tharoor, who is heading an all-party delegation to the US on Operation Sindoor, said India's action was mandated by the terror attack in Pahalgam.

Addressing the Indian community in Panama City, Tharoor spoke about how terrorists killed men in front of their wives and told them to go tell others about it. The Congress leader detailed the attack and revealed how terrorists paid no heed to the women's pleas.

He said, "Some women cried out. They told the terrorists - killed me too, and they said, 'No, go back, tell everyone what happened to you'. We heard, we heard their cries and India decided that the colour of the sindoor, the vermilion colour on the forehead of our women, will also match the colour of the blood of the killers, the perpetrators, the attackers..."

Further, he reiterated the PM's message and said, "Our Prime Minister has made it very clear, Operation Sindoor was necessary because these terrorists came and wiped the Sindoor off the foreheads of 26 women by depriving them of their husbands and fathers, their married lives."

In remarks seen as a praise for the Modi government, Tharoor said, "What has changed in recent years is that the terrorists have also realised they will have a price to pay. On that, let there be no doubt.

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 launchpad - the Uri strike in September 2015. That was already something we had not done before."

These are the remarks that have invited stern responses from the Congress leadership, with several distancing themselves from the four-time MP's statements. This adds to the existing issue of Tharoor being selected by the government to lead the US delegation, even though the Congress leadership had not given Tharoor's name in its preliminary list.

Congress leader Udit Raj spoke against Tharoor's comments on X (formerly Twitter), saying, "Congress MP Shashi Tharoor is the super spokesperson of the BJP, and what the BJP leaders are not saying, speaking in favour

of PM Modi and the government, Shashi Tharoor is doing...Does he (Shashi Tharoor) even know what the earlier governments used to do?" "How could you denigrate the golden history of Congress by saying that before PM Modi, India never crossed LOC and International border.

In 1965 Indian Army entered Pakistan at multiple points, which completely surprised the Pakistanis in the Lahore sector. In 1971, India tore Pakistan in two pieces and during UPA Govt several surgical strikes were unleashed but drum beating was not done to encash politically. How could you be so dishonest to the party which gave you so much?" he said.