- 5/29/2025
The rift between Congress leaders and MP Shashi Tharoor is escalating over his comments about the 2016 surgical strikes. Party members are demanding a public apology, with some suggesting suspension. Tharoor has clarified his remarks, stating they were taken out of context. The BJP has backed Tharoor's claim, citing a 2017 Army response. The controversy highlights tensions within the Congress and raises questions about Tharoor's future in the party.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00To another war of words, this time within the Congress Party, where day after day, Congress
00:05leaders continue to target Dr. Shashi Tharoor, accusing him of being a mouthpiece for the BJP.
00:12Dr. Tharoor hit back, claiming that there were those who were needlessly quoting him
00:18out of context. The BJP has been quick to take advantage, question the Congress, and
00:25is lauding Tharoor, claiming that the Congress leader is putting the nation first.
00:32The rift between Congress leaders and their MP, Shashi Tharoor, is escalating. Tharoor is
00:39now being labelled, modified by members of his own party over his statements abroad about
00:452016 surgical strikes.
00:47The Uri strike in September 2015, that was already something we had not done before.
00:56Even during the Kargil war, we had not crossed the line of control. In Uri we did. Then came
01:03the attack in Pulwama in January 2019. This time we crossed not only the line of control,
01:09we crossed the international border and we struck the terrorist headquarters in Balakot.
01:15Congress leaders are demanding a public apology, with some even suggesting that Tharoor could
01:21be suspended from the party.
01:23cleaning.
01:24The Fati, the Mohar, the Mitter, is saying that it is the right equals man. It is a
01:27problem.
01:28The judge will be suspended from the time that they have over the same time. To
01:31say, that the men will not affect the world before. The other men will return to the
01:33people who are taking the fall. They will receive the agreement and the
01:34women will be saved. It will become a five- 1954. The people who have
01:36noticed that they will suffer all the time from the nests. It is the
01:37people who have said that this statement was in the fall. The
01:39country, the American government is saying that the men will be
01:42against the parties who areледistas on the floor. It will be
01:44against the officials. The people and the office of the
01:47tough country were left during the war. They will not die.
01:48But Tharoor is standing his ground.
02:02In a post on Platform X, he launched a scathing rebuttal, clarifying that his recent remarks
02:08were preceded by a reference to several terror attacks in recent years.
02:13He noted that earlier Indian responses were both constrained and restrained, respecting
02:18the line of control.
02:20Meanwhile, Congress leader Pawan Kheda kept the feud going.
02:24On X he posted a highlighted excerpt from Tharoor's 2018 book, The Paradoxical Prime Minister,
02:31in which Tharoor had praised the Congress-led UPA for conducting surgical strikes with restraint
02:37without politicizing them.
02:39For now, Congress leaders say they fully support the party high command if it decides to consider
02:45Tharoor's suspension.
02:46Dr. Tharoor has already clarified today that he did not mean that no action has been taken
02:52in the past.
02:53The BJP always tries to divide.
02:55They won't succeed here.
02:57Let them try.
02:59The BJP has backed Tharoor's India first official surgical strike claim, citing a 2017 response
03:06from the Army's Directorate General of Military Operations to a PTI query, which stated that
03:11there was no records of surgical strikes before September 29, 2016.
03:18As the war of words intensifies, Shashi Tharoor's future in Congress party is now under a cloud.
03:24With Maasami Singh, Bureau Report, India Today.
03:29So what next for Dr. Shashi Tharoor?
03:32Joining me now, two people who've tracked Tharoor's career closely.
03:35I'm joined by Javed Ansari, senior journalist, and also joined by Sanjay Jha, former Congress
03:41spokesperson who worked closely with Dr. Tharoor at the All India Professional Congress.
03:45Appreciate both of you joining us.
03:47Sanjay Jha, what do you make out of Dr. Tharoor?
03:50Is this an individual who's getting increasingly restless within the Congress?
03:55Or are you going to blame the Congress leadership for targeting Shashi Tharoor so publicly?
04:00Well, Razdeep, I think it's a very complicated situation.
04:04For the fact remains that Shashi is an outstanding parliamentarian, a brilliant career diplomat.
04:13And as I keep repeating, I mean, often as possible, had he been fortunate, he could have been the UN Secretary General.
04:22The Congress party, I think, needs to be recognizing the reality that he's not the ordinary politician that we have in our country.
04:31I mean, this is a reason why the BJP, in fact, has made sure that he is the lodestar in this entire diplomatic offensive to talk about the post-Operation Sindhu circumstances.
04:44I think the Congress obviously has not given him the kind of respect that he thought he deserved.
04:50And very often what happens, Razdeep, and I'm putting it on the table right at the very beginning, that when you have a talented, academically, intellectually bright person like him, like Shashi,
05:02you normally expect to be in government framing policies and being part of whatever is your expertise.
05:09The Congress has been in opposition for a long time.
05:12And I think people like him and several other outstanding talent, like even P. Chid Amram, must be feeling that they are at the periphery and not able to play a mainstream role in Indian politics.
05:22Therefore, it is important for the Congress to recognize that when you've got some very extraordinary, exemplary people in your team, you need to make them at least integrate your own opposition strategy.
05:35And I think, to some extent, the Congress really hasn't handled that well.
05:38I would be blunt enough to say that I would have liked to see Shashi actually be the voice in the Lok Sabha on behalf of the Congress Party,
05:46if not leader of the opposition between definitely when Adirandan Choudhury was there.
05:52So these are calls that the party needs to make.
05:55I know there has been a lot of criticism of Dr. Tharoor because, you know, people feel that he has veered away from the Congress line, that he is going to be more statesman-like.
06:05You can't expect Shashi Tharoor to be necessarily towing every word you say ad nauseum.
06:12I mean, he's got his own independent thinking.
06:14And I think in the matter of what happened between India and Pakistan, there are grey areas.
06:20And end of day, it's an opportunity for him to demonstrate not just to the Congress or to the BJP, but to the people of India, that he is a politician who is different.
06:29And he needs to be, therefore, handled differently.
06:31Do you agree with that, Javed Ansai, that Shashi Tharoor is a politician who is different, needs to be handled differently?
06:40Or is Shashi Tharoor, in a sense, being a little ungrateful to the party that's also given him a fair amount in the last decade and a half?
06:48Rajdeep, frankly, both sides ought to have handled this better.
06:53They could have handled this better.
06:55The Congress should have handled Shashi better, given him greater problems.
06:59His main grouse is he feels undermined.
07:02He feels he's not getting his due.
07:04He also, he would ideally want to be the face of the Congress party in Kerala.
07:10He would want to be the chief minister's face.
07:12Unfortunately, Mr. Rahul Gandhi and others have Mr. Kesey Venugopal in mind.
07:18And that doesn't seem to be happening.
07:20And that appears to be increasing his frustration.
07:23Shashi has a lot of things going for him.
07:26He's a four-time MP.
07:28He's won that seat for consecutive terms twice at a time when the Congress faced disastrous defeats nationally.
07:37But one cannot also forget that he was brought into the party by Mr. Sonia Gandhi in the face of opposition from the state leadership of the Congress party in Kerala.
07:48So, he is an exceptional talent.
07:51There is no denying it.
07:52But at the end of the day, when you join a party, when you are part of the team, then you have to play by the rules.
08:00It cannot be that there can be...
08:03Are there Congress leaders, though?
08:05Javed, are there Congress leaders who are insecure about Shashi Tharoor?
08:08Oh, certainly.
08:09This is typical Congress factionalism and leaders who are pulling him down at every opportunity.
08:16Well, absolutely.
08:17Shashi in many ways is a victim of his own brilliance.
08:21There are a lot of others who cannot even, you know, show a candle to him, intellectually and otherwise.
08:28You know, he's articulate his range of experience.
08:31And therefore, people believe that Shashi has only joined the party, you know, 20 years ago.
08:38And suddenly, he now wants to be the face.
08:40So, they are jealous of his rise.
08:42They are jealous of his talent.
08:45Shashi also needs to take a...
08:48You know, he needs to be a lot more patient in the Congress party.
08:52It's in a conservative party like the Congress.
08:55You need to bide your time.
08:59You're saying you need to bide your time.
09:02But the question, of course, also is, Sanjay Jha, you can be as brilliant as you are,
09:07but in politics, you have to follow, in the truest sense, a party line.
09:12And at a time when the party is asking tough questions of the Modi government post-Pahil Gaam,
09:17you've got Shashi Tharoor going out of his way to endorse whatever the government has done.
09:22The same Shashi Tharoor, who in 2018, writing a book called Paradoxical Prime Minister,
09:27accused the Modi government on Uri of doing a particularly disgraceful dilution of the principle
09:34that national security issues require both discretion and non-partisanship,
09:40and suggesting that the surgical strikes were being used as a party election tool.
09:44So, in 2016, in 2018, in his book, Shashi Tharoor is going for Narendra Modi.
09:50In 2025, he seems to be endorsing every move of Narendra Modi, often at the cost of his own party line.
09:57Is Shashi Tharoor simply someone looking for political relevance?
10:02Rajdeep, let me tell you, I have read that and I'm sure Shashi himself is extremely aware of what he's written in the book
10:09and what he said in New York or in the United States.
10:13You see, when you represent the government and you are out there publicly in an international format,
10:20trying to address questions on what happened between India and Pakistan,
10:24he cannot at that point of time appear to be a politician.
10:28I don't think Shashi will ever deny that what the BJP did in terms of, you know,
10:33going public with the operation of the surgical strike or claiming credit,
10:38although it had happened during the time of Dr. Manmohan Singh as an overt operation,
10:42he's not going to repeat that when he's in the United States.
10:45That's not the principal objective.
10:47So, in politics, and I have been part of it, there are times you have to do smart, selective cherry-picking.
10:53That doesn't mean that you're in contradiction with what you said before.
10:57I maintain the view, Rajdeep, that the Congress has always been the Big Ten Party historically
11:03and ought to be open to a diversity of thoughts, many of them contradictory.
11:08And, you know, the large party, you see, it is the mothership organization of the entire opposition, to be frank.
11:15And you can't be thin-skinned on these matters.
11:18I mean, what is Shashi doing? He's representing the Congress.
11:21And in my opinion, you convert this into a political statement.
11:25I have tweeted about it, saying the Congress should ideally tell the people of India, and should do it aggressively,
11:31that look at the talent we have, that the BJP today, which has rubbished us, castigated us wrongly for being anti-national
11:39because we questioned them, now needs one of our best voices to talk about India's national interest.
11:45And that makes you a party in waiting to form a government.
11:48So, when you get a lemon, you convert a lemonade. You don't go and crush the lemon.
11:52So, you're saying he could be a potential shadow, have a shadow cabinet where Shashi Tharoot could be your face on external affairs.
11:59Mr. Chidambram could have been on finance.
12:01Is that part of the problem, though, Javed Ansari, the elephant in the room, the people around Rahul Gandhi,
12:07who see the likes of Shashi Tharoot possibly outshining Rahul Gandhi,
12:12and therefore, let's not give Shashi Tharoot too much of prominence. He may well outshine our own leader.
12:19I don't think their concern is so much Rahul Gandhi as themselves.
12:23Mr. Casey Venu Gopal and Shashi Tharoot, they not only come from the same state, they also belong to the same caste.
12:32And Mr. Casey Venu Gopal clearly feels that Mr. Shashi Tharoot is upstaging him.
12:38He has his eyes set on the Kerala chief ministers. The roots of this problem lie there.
12:43And as far as my friend Sanjay Jai was saying, you know, you need to cherry pick, but there are a lot of things that you can avoid.
12:51There was no point in saying that, you know, praising Mr. Modi and saying that what happened in 2016 never happened before,
13:00because that is factually incorrect. It happened. It's just that nobody in the previous government office,
13:07which Sanjay wholeheartedly supported, did not believe in patting itself on its back.
13:13No, but could all of this, Shashi Tharoor versus the Congress leader...
13:19No, no, but there was a time when all of this could be settled internally within party fora.
13:24Now it seems to be a free-for-all. Anyone and everyone is using social media to target Shashi Tharoor.
13:30Udit Raj one day, it could be Pawan Kheda the next.
13:34The fact is that surely this is an... Even if you have differences, settle them behind closed doors.
13:41Well, most certainly, and a lot of them feel upstage, a lot of them feel insecure.
13:47Shashi's brilliance makes them feel insecure.
13:51You know, is it about the insecurity that he brings Sanjay Jai a final word?
13:55Or Shashi Tharoor also needs to realize that you may be brand Shashi Tharoor, but there is a political party you are part of.
14:01That there is an element of self-obsession, according to his critics, that prevent him from being a true team player.
14:08No, Razdeep, I can tell you that one of the things that you hear very often is about discipline.
14:13I'm all for discipline.
14:15But discipline cannot become claustrophobic.
14:18Because the truth, Razdeep, is if you go back into the history of the Congress party,
14:23you will find, and that's what the BGP tries to exploit, and actually that should be Congress's biggest strength,
14:28that whether it's Sardar Patel or Pandit Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi or Netaji Bose,
14:33they were all brilliant people fighting for India's freedom struggle and had different viewpoints.
14:38I mean, I can tell you that in any organization, India today, you name Apple, people debate and they disagree all the time.
14:46So I think one has to be very practical and pragmatic about all this.
14:50I mean, you know, today, for example, I can tell you that even within the BGP, people may not say it openly,
14:56but they would be very anxious about the way the entire ceasefire was handled by the Modi government.
15:01So he articulated that. And I think the Congress needs to leverage that as its unique strength.
15:07You know, India is desperate for a party that has to fight for India's democracy,
15:12but needs to walk the talk by showing that we practice it at home.
15:16Charity must begin at home. The Congress has an opportunity to do that.
15:20I can vouch for it that Sashi is deeply upset. He ought to be.
15:24He deserves a lot more respect than he's been receiving.
15:27And you're right. You know, you don't need the social media, Razdeep.
15:30You just need to sit over a cup of coffee, have a conversation, express what your frustrations are,
15:35whether it's Kerala or whatever, and sort it out.
15:38Troubleshooting is why leaders are there.
15:41And therefore I tweeted today to Mr. Karge and Mr. Rahul Gandhi saying,
15:44call up Sashi, have a chat, break the ice and move on.
15:49Javed Ansari, you raised your finger, 20 seconds, very quickly.
15:54Coffee pe charcha.
15:56The coffee pe charcha didn't took place six weeks ago and it didn't turn out very well.
16:04I wish it was this easy.
16:07And both Sashi and the Congress party need to be careful, need to make amends.
16:14Well, the truth of the matter is our politics is so hyper-polarized that the space for dialogue seems to shrink all the time.
16:24And politics becomes even more claustrophobic at times for, particularly for talented individuals with minds of their own.
16:32Sanjay Jha, Javed Ansari for joining me on the predicament of being Shashi Tharoor.
16:38Thanks very much.