Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday said he has never violated the party’s stated stand in Parliament, and insisted that his only public disagreement in principle was over Operation Sindoor.
Answering questions during a session at the Kerala Literature Festival, Tharoor said he had taken a strong stand on that issue and was “not ready to apologise”.
His statement comes amid recent reports of Tharoor’s “differences with the party leadership”, and speculation that he is upset with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for not adequately acknowledging his presence at a recent event in Kochi and attempts by state leaders to allegedly sideline him repeatedly.
Clarifying his point, Tharoor said that as an observer and writer, he had written a column in a newspaper after the Pahalgam incident, in which he had said that it should not be left unpunished and concrete action should be taken against it.
He said that India is focused on development, hence it should not be dragged into a long-term conflict with Pakistan and any action should be limited to targeting terrorist camps.
Tharoor said he was surprised that the Indian government did exactly what he recommended.
Tharoor said it was Jawaharlal Nehru who asked the famous question, “Who will survive if India dies?”
He said, “When India is at stake, when India’s security and its place in the world are at stake, India is paramount.”
He further said that there may be differences between political parties as part of the process of building a better India, but when it comes to national interest, India must be paramount.
