New Delhi : Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who will lead one of the seven all-party delegations of MPs tasked with briefing key partner countries on the recent India-Pakistan conflict, said he was available for the country when needed, and batted for a united front. The diplomat-turned-politician has been a vocal supporter of the Narendra Modi-led government’s policies in the recent past and also praised Operation Sindoor launched in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.
To my mind, this has nothing to do with party politics. It’s all to do with what our country has been through in recent times and the need for us to present a united front. It is a good reflection of national unity at a time when unity is important, the Thiruvananthapuram MP told reporters.
Tharoor is among the seven MPs named by the government to lead all-party delegations to key countries to expose Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and articulate India’s position on Operation Sindoor. Shortly after the Centre announced the names, Congress’s media in-charge Jairam Ramesh, surprisingly, revealed that Tharoor was not among the leaders recommended by the party.
The party’s picks were Anand Sharma, Gaurav Gogoi, Syed Naseer Hussain and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring. I have absolutely no comment to make on that. I am honoured to have been entrusted with the responsibility, and I will fulfil that responsibility just as I have fulfilled every responsibility entrusted to me in my rather long working life, whether at the UN or in the Congress.
I also mentioned to the Parliamentary Affairs Minister that I assumed that he would be talking to the party leaderships of opposition parties, and he assured me that he would be. I found it entirely appropriate, as I said, that the country should rally together on this particularly important issue,” he added. A senior leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, had told India Today TV that Tharoor had “crossed the Lakshman Rekha”. “We are a democratic party and people keep expressing their opinions, but this time, Tharoor has crossed the lakshman rekha,” the leader said after the meeting.