In a fresh sign of growing tension between Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and his own party, the Thiruvananthapuram MP has come under fire for his recent comments about India’s cross-border military actions.
While speaking to the Indian community in Panama, Tharoor said that for the first time, India crossed the Line of Control (LoC) in 2016 during the Uri surgical strike, and later even crossed the international border (IB) after the Pulwama attack in 2019. He claimed such actions hadn’t happened before, not even during the Kargil War.
These remarks didn’t go down well with several Congress leaders, who felt Tharoor was giving credit to the Modi government and ignoring India’s past military achievements — especially during the UPA years.
Congress leader Pawan Khera posted an old video of former PM Manmohan Singh speaking about surgical strikes during the UPA, saying, “Many surgical strikes were conducted under UPA, cc Shashi Tharoor.”
Another Congress leader, Udit Raj, strongly criticized Tharoor, reminding him that:
–In 1965, the Indian Army entered Pakistan in the Lahore sector.In 1971, India split Pakistan into two.
Several surgical strikes were carried out during the UPA government too — just without the political hype.
Responding to criticism on social media, Tharoor dismissed the backlash. He said he was only talking about recent counter-terrorism operations — not about earlier wars — and called his critics “zealots and trolls.” He added, “I genuinely have better things to do.”
Tharoor is currently leading a multi-party delegation under Operation Sindoor, an Indian outreach mission, and was heading from Panama to Colombia when he made these statements online.
The incident highlights a growing rift within the Congress party over how its leaders talk about India’s security and military history.
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