WASHINGTON: (Jun 5) Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said anybody who considers that working in the national interest is a sort of anti-party activity needs to question themselves rather than us.
Tharoor is leading an all-party parliamentary delegation to the US to convey India’s stance against terrorism following the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor.
“Frankly, when one is doing the nation’s service, I don’t think one needs to worry too much about these things,” Tharoor said in an interview with PTI Videos on Wednesday.
Tharoor was responding to a question that he was at the centre of the attention on the trip while leading the all-party delegation because some of his party members criticised his statements.
On what his message would be to those party leaders upon returning to India, Tharoor said: “I think anybody who sort of considers that working in the national interest is some sort of anti-party activity really needs to question themselves rather than us.
“I honestly feel at this point we are focused on a mission here, and we don’t need to spend too much time worrying about what is said or not said in the heat of the moment by various individuals because for us the focus is on this much larger and more important message. When the time comes, we’ll deal (with it),” Tharoor said.
The senior Congress leader said he noticed his friend Salman Khurshid asked if it was so difficult to be a patriot in India these days.
On social media being abuzz about whether Tharoor would continue to be with Congress or join the BJP, he said: “I’m an elected member of parliament. I have four years left of my term. I don’t know why there is any question to be asked.”
In response to a question on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and saying he had “surrendered” after receiving a phone call from US President Donald Trump, Tharoor said: “In a democracy, and this is normal, parties will contend, express criticism, and make demands.”
“We are not here on a party political mission. We are here as representatives of a united India,” he said, pointing out the delegation included five political parties from three religions and seven states.
Apart from Tharoor, the delegation comprised MPs Sarfaraz Ahmad, Ganti Harish Madhur Balayogi, Shashank Mani Tripathi, Bhubaneswar Kalita, Milind Deora, Tejasvi Surya, and India’s former ambassador to the US Taranjit Sandhu, who arrived from India in New York on May 24 and travelled to Guyana, Panama, Colombia and Brazil before arriving in Washington, the last leg of the tour.
“It’s an incredible cross-section reflective of India’s diversity. And yet we’ve come up with a united message. So there is unity in diversity as well, in this group, and to my mind, our focus has to be on that unified message, because when it comes to the national interest, national security, honestly, I think by and large, the nation is united.”
He referred to an old interview saying that “our political differences stop at the edge of the border. Once you cross the border, you are Indian, and your other allegiances come second”.
Responding to a question on Trump’s repeated claims of mediating in the conflict between India and Pakistan, Tharoor said: “I’m not necessarily having to address it because I’m not here to stir up any sort of complications in our relationship with the White House.
“We have enormous respect for the American presidency and for the American president. And I think we don’t know exactly what his folks said to Pakistan.
“We didn’t need persuading by anybody, because our signal from day one was, if Pakistan hits back, we will hit them even harder. If they stop, we will stop. We said that from the first day. We said it on the last day,” he said.
“So from our point of view, there was no need to ask us to stop, because we were going to stop as soon as Pakistan did. Of course, they may have talked to Pakistan. They may have said various things to Pakistan. We will never know what was said because that’s between them and Pakistan, and that may well explain a lot of what is coming out in Washington. But I can’t tell you because I’m not Pakistani and I’m not American,” Tharoor said.
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, with India carrying out precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the early hours of May 7.
Pakistan attempted to attack Indian military bases on May 8, 9, and 10. The Indian side responded strongly to the Pakistani actions.
The on-ground hostilities ended with an understanding of stopping the military actions following talks between the directors general of military operations of both sides on May 10. PTI
