New Delhi: Tensions within the Congress party erupted this week as General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala attempted to quell a brewing storm around senior leader Shashi Tharoor’s recent comments on surgical strikes.
While asserting “no acrimony” exists within the party, Surjewala pointedly corrected Tharoor, stating his remarks about the 2016 strikes were “factually incorrect.” “Shashi Tharoor is a senior Congress leader and very much part of the Congress family. However, what he said about the surgical strike was factually incorrect,” Surjewala said while addressing the media.
Surjewala, however, emphasised that such operations “were regularly executed” during the Congress-led UPA government’s tenure, serving as a “befitting reply to terrorists.” He cited former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and even Tharoor’s own book as evidence, stating that party spokespersons like Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera had simply “put the record straight.”
“Congress party only corrected (him) by pointing out that surgical strikes against Pakistan and other dens of terrorists was a regular feature even during the UPA term – to give a befitting reply to terrorists by our armed forces and the Congress governments,” Surjewala, as quoted by Hindustan Times.
The controversy ignited after Tharoor, as part of an all-party delegation abroad, seemingly implied that surgical strikes against Pakistan were a new phenomenon under the current government.
Tharoor’s initial statement, where he claimed “we have struck at the Punjabi heartland of Pakistan by hitting terror bases, training centres, and terror headquarters in nine places,” had drawn sharp criticism from within his own party.
Several Congress leaders articulated their disagreement, with media head Pawan Khera and leader Udit Raj leading the charge. Raj went so far as to suggest Tharoor should be made a “super spokesperson of the BJP,” lambasting his statement as a “lie and a conspiracy to destroy the Congress” by misrepresenting its history. Raj’s remarks were notably reposted on X by Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, signaling party endorsement.
“The delegations which have been sent are trying to destroy the name of the Congress… Shashi Tharoor says that before PM Modi’s leadership, we never crossed LoC or any international border with Pakistan. It is a big lie and a big conspiracy to destroy the history of the Congress which needs to be replied to,” Raj told news agency PTI.
“He should focus on his duty rather than criticising the Congress party… Congress took required measures in the past but never publicised it or used it as a medium of collecting votes in their favour,” he said.
Khera further underscored the party’s position by sharing a screenshot from Tharoor’s 2018 book, “The Paradoxical Prime Minister,” where Tharoor himself critiqued the Modi government for “shameless exploitation” and “disgraceful dilution” of the principle of non-partisanship regarding national security issues like the 2016 surgical strikes. The escalating internal dispute saw an “apparently infuriated” Tharoor responding with a lengthy post on X, indicating the ongoing friction within the Grand Old Party.
“The shameless exploitation of the 2016 ‘surgical strikes’ along the Line of Control with Pakistan, and of a military raid in hot pursuit of rebels in Myanmar, as a 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,” Tharoor writes in the book.
Facing a barrage of criticism for his recent statements regarding India’s cross-border actions, prominent politician Shashi Tharoor has moved swiftly to clarify his position, emphasizing that his remarks were strictly confined to retaliatory measures against terrorist attacks and did not pertain to historical military conflicts. Despite a demanding schedule, Tharoor issued a statement to address what he termed “zealots fulminating about my supposed ignorance of Indian valour.”
“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,” Tharoor said, while responding to the criticism.
