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Congress MP Shashi Tharoor speaks at the Kerala Literature Festival on Saturday. (Photo: Screengrab from PTI Video)
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor Saturday asserted his “unapologetic” stand on Operation Sindoor, saying he has never violated any of his party’s position in Parliament, news agency PTI reported.
Speaking at the Kerala Literature Festival in Kozhikode, Tharoor said, “I have at no stage violated any of the Congress’s positions in Parliament; the only issue on which there has been public disagreement on principle is about Operation Sindoor where I did take a very strong stand, and I remain unapologetic about that…”
Shashi Tharoor cites The Indian Express column
Referring to his weekly column in The Indian Express, ‘After Pahalgam, India must hit back smart, not just hard‘, dated April 30, 2025, Tharoor continued, “After Pahalgam happened, I myself, as an observer and commentator, writer, I had written a column in The Indian Express, which I think I gave the title ‘After Pahalgam,’ they gave it a title ‘Hit Hard, Hit Smart’, and I said in that article, this cannot go unpunished; there has to be a kinetic response.”
“Equally, we are a country focused on development. We do not want to be dragged into a full-on conflict with Pakistan. And I said, we are a country dependent on external investments, and investors don’t like war zones, so we can’t take a step that would turn India into a war zone. Therefore, hit only terrorist targets, finite number of them, and signal very clearly that we, Indians are only targeting terrorism. We are not attacking Pakistan. It’s Pakistan’s inability and unwillingness to curb terrorism that has obliged us to do this. And I said that don’t give Pakistan any further excuse for escalation. This is what I wrote…,” the Congress MP told the gathering.
“You can imagine my astonishment and frankly joy when a few days later, the government of India did exactly what I recommended. How do you expect me to criticize what I myself have recommended, I supported it fully throughout Sindoor and afterwards.”
Commenting on the “differences of opinion” with some in the party leadership after Tharoor led an all-party delegation to foreign countries to explain the Operation, he said, “You can speak to them and find out why… it was Nehruji who asked the very famous questions, Who lives if India dies’. When India’s national security in place in the world is an issue, India comes first. Political parties are important, they are a vehicle to create a better India. We can disagree with each other on ways to do that, but whenever India’s interests are involved, India prevails.”
Days after India launched Operation Sindoor last year, Tharoor had headed the Indian government’s delegation to US, Panama, Guyana, Brazil and Colombia and faced flak from within his party for defending the government’s stance on the issue.
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Even the selection of Tharoor as part of the government delegation to spread information in the wake of Operation Sindoor drew fierce opposition from Congress. Tharoor, the chairman of the External Affairs Committee of the Parliament, wasn’t on the list of four names forwarded by the party to the Centre.
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