Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor’s resounding endorsement of India’s recent counter-terror strikes during Operation Sindoor has found him praising the government’s response even as his party seethes over being sidelined in a crucial diplomatic outreach.
Addressing the Indian diaspora at the Consulate in New York, Tharoor declared that while he did not work for the government, he was “pleased” with the government’s retaliation to the Pahalgam massacre of April 22.
“I don’t work for the government, as you know. I work for an opposition party. But in one of India’s leading papers, , within a couple of days, saying the time had come to hit hard but hit smart. And I’m pleased to say that’s exactly what India did.”
The Congress MP’s remarks, applauding India’s “precise and calibrated” counter-terror strikes on May 7, have raised eyebrows within his own party. The strikes targeted nine known terrorist bases in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, including Lashkar-e-Taiba’s headquarters in Muridke and Jaish-e-Mohammed facilities in Bahawalpur.
“India replied immediately that we would not let this go unanswered,” Tharoor said, adding that the strikes were a clear message that India “was not going to take terror lying down.”
| New York, US: During an interaction at the Consulate, Congress MP says, ” I don’t work for the government, as you know. I work for an opposition party…I myself authored an op-ed…saying the time has come to hit hard but hit smart. I’m pleased to say…
— ANI (@ANI)
Tharoor, also the chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs,
Tharoor’s statements are part of a broader diplomatic push by India under ‘Operation Sindoor’, where seven all-party delegations have been sent overseas to project India’s zero-tolerance stance on terrorism. Tharoor heads the delegation to the United States, Panama, Guyana, Brazil, and Colombia, joined by MPs from the and regional parties.
But the Congress party, already feeling isolated within the INDIA bloc, . The government’s announcement of delegation members without consulting the Congress has only deepened internal rifts.
The Congress had suggested the names of former Union Minister Anand Sharma; the party’s Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi; and MPs Syed Naseer Hussain and Amarinder Singh Raja Warring. Tharoor’s name did not figure in the list suggested by the Congress — and neither did the names of his Lok Sabha colleagues Manish Tewari and Amar Singh, and former External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, who the government contacted for the delegations and eventually, put in different groups.
Senior leader Jairam Ramesh called the move “regrettable” and accused the Modi government of “cheap political games.”
Ramesh said in a post on X days ago, “The 4 eminent Congress MPs/leaders who have been included at the instance of the Modi Govt will, of course, go with the delegations and make their contributions. The INC will not stoop to the pathetic level of the PM and the BJP. It will always uphold the finest traditions of Parliamentary democracy and not play partisan politics on national security issues, like the BJP does.”
Tharoor, for his part, has long argued for a bipartisan approach on security matters and continues to carve out a niche beyond party lines, appealing to the intelligentsia and the youth alike. But his willingness to publicly applaud the government’s military operation — and to do so with rhetorical flourish — has left many in the Congress leadership privately uneasy.
For the Modi government, however, Tharoor’s strong words are an unexpected gift.
