‘I agree with that’: Congress leader Pawan Khera’s dig at Shashi Tharoor over praise for Modi govt

In a veiled attack on Congress MP and senior party leader Shashi Tharoor, Congress leader Pawan Khera on Thursday said he agrees with what the lawmaker wrote in his book ‘The Paradoxical Prime Minister’ in 2018.

The jibe comes at a time when Tharoor’s praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi over Operation Sindoor has left the Congress and its leaders uncomfortable. Tharoor’s shower of accolades came during an all-party delegation visit to Panama.

Sharing an excerpt from Tharoor’s 2018 book on social media Khera said, “I agree with that Dr Shashi Tharoor who wrote about surgical strikes in his book in 2018 – ‘The Paradoxical Prime Minister’.”

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In the highlighted excerpt shared by Khera, Tharoor is seen criticising the BJP-led Centre’s 2016 ‘surgical strikes’ along the LoC as a party election tool to garner votes, while adding that Congress had never done so, despite having ordered several airstrikes.

I agree with that Dr @ShashiTharoor who wrote about surgical strikes in his book in 2018 – ‘The Paradoxical Prime Minister’. #ReadingNow pic.twitter.com/hAhsfwH0JT

— Pawan Khera 🇮🇳 (@Pawankhera) May 29, 2025

In the highlighted portion, Tharoor is seen calling the BJP’s conduct of the 2016 ‘surgical strikes’ a “particularly disgraceful dilution of the principal that national security issues require both discretion and non-partisanship.”

While Tharoor’s praise for Modi has received flak from his party colleagues, the MP has issued a clarification on his official X account. He stated that his comments specifically addressed retaliatory actions following terrorist attacks, did not reflect that of previous wars or military operations.

“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,” his X post reads.

After a long and successful day in Panama, i have to wind up at midnightvhere with departure for Bogota, Colombia in six hours, so I don’t really have time for this — but anyway: For those zealots fulminating about my supposed ignorance of Indian valour across the LoC: in tge…

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 29, 2025

Tharoor has been facing internal heat for taking a stance different from the party on Operation Sindoor and has also been accused of parroting BJP’s narrative on the war.

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