Tewari questions Tharoor’s silence on LoC strikes

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 23

Questions are being asked in the Congress over why Shashi Tharoor, chairman, parliamentary standing committee on external affairs, continues to be silent after Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar told the panel recently that target specific counter-terror operations across the LoC took place in the past also.

Jaishankar’s reported statement contradicts Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s “no surgical strike in the past” line and matches Congress’ claim that the Army undertook surgical strikes earlier as well.

Congress’ national spokesperson Manish Tewari today questioned Tharoor asking why he did not make the important statement of FS public when chairpersons of important panels have done so in the past.

“This would not have been the first time any chairperson of a parliamentary standing committee would be sharing critical information with the people. Chairmen have made committee proceedings public in the past. Maj Gen BC Khanduri (retd), chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on defence, recently shared the meeting details when the committee was briefed on the September 29 surgical strikes by a top Army officer. In the past, Congress leader PC Chacko, as head of the parliamentary committee on spectrum allocation, regularly briefed the media on panel discussions. Many other chairpersons have done this,” Tewari said.