Congress leader Khera takes out passage from Shashi Tharoor's book to target him

MP and senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's relationship with the party may be at a crossroads as senior party leader Pawan Khera on Thursday responded to his "critics and trolls" post with a passage from his book 'The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi and His India'.

Following drubbing by his own party colleagues on Wednesday, Tharoor in a post on X, "But as usual, critics and trolls are welcome to distort my views and words as they see fit. I genuinely have better things to do. Goodnight."

Khera posted a photograph of a highlighted passage in which Tharoor has accused the Narendra Modi government of "repeatedly using the army in its political propaganda".

"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 party election tool-something the Congress had never done despite having authorised several such strikes earlier-marked particularly disgraceful dilution of the principle that national security issues require both discretion and non-partisanship," Tharoor has written.

In another post, Khera said, "I agree with what Dr Shashi Tharoor writes about surgical strikes in his book 'The Paradoxical Prime Minister'."

Following Tharoor's remarks in Panama, in which he praised the Narendra Modi government's response to terrorism, Khera has been posting on X about how surgical strikes were carried out during the UPA era, too, and tagged Tharoor on these posts.

Khera is considered among the key figures in the Congress top brass. Khera's post as per the party insiders is a clear message to Tharoor that the high command is not happy with him.

Also, MP and Congress's communications head Jairam Ramesh responded to one of the posts by Khera with a poetic swipe at  Tharoor. "Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive..., he said.

Tharoor led an Indian delegation to the US and four other countries as part of the Centre's global outreach in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor. After events in the US and Panama, the delegation is now headed to Bogota.

Historically, Tharoor has had a chequered journey in the Congress, with several run-ins with the leadership.

A former Union minister, he was removed as the party's spokesperson in 2014 after he praised PM Modi in an article.

In 2022, he was part of a rebellion by 23 senior party leaders, popular as G23 group that called for key organisational changes.

Tharoor has also contested against Mallikarjun Kharge for the party president's post.

While Kharge, who had the tacit support of the Gandhi family, won comfortably.

Tharoor got some 1,054 votes out of the 6,000 votes polled in the party's election.

The Congress, which assured full support to the Centre in its action against those behind the Pahalgam terror attack, has now changed tack and asked the government to come clean on what led to the ceasefire and questioned what role the US played in it.

Besides, the Congress has been urging the government to call special Parliament session to discuss the events post Pahalgam attack.