Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge taunted the praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of party MP Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday, 25 June 2025, saying that the Congress believes in the mantra of “country first”, but “Some people keep Modi first and the country” later “. At a press conference in New Delhi, Kharge praised Tharoor’s English writing ability and said, “I cannot read English well, but he (Tharoor’s) is very good, so we have put him in the Congress Working Committee (CWC).”
Tharoor appreciated India’s global diplomacy after Operation Sindoor in an article published in ‘The Hindu’ on 23 June, in which he described PM Modi’s “energy, dynamics and activism on the global stage” as a “major property” for India. On April 22, the terrorist attacks in Pahalgam, in which 26 people were killed, and in response to this, on 7 May, Tharoor, after Operation Sindoor in India, effectively introduced India’s position to national and international forums.
Kharge said, “The entire opposition was united with the army after the Pahalgam attack. We said the country first, but some people say Modi first, the country later. What do we do?” Tharoor shared a mysterious post on X in response, with a picture of a bird, “Don’t ask for permission to fly. The wings are yours and the sky is not anyone.” It was seen as a tanj on the Congress leadership.
Some Congress leaders, like Kerala’s K.K. Muralitharan, described Tharoor’s praise as “disgusting”, while the BJP used it against Rahul Gandhi. Tharoor clarified that his comment was for “national unity and interest”, not a sign of joining BJP.
