Will the Kerala MP finally call it quits? – Firstpost

The cracks between Shashi Tharoor and the Congress are out in the open. The Thiruvananthapuram MP has been in the line of fire since his unfettered support to the Central government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Operation Sindoor, the retaliatory military strikes by India against Pakistan in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack.

Now, Tharoor has irked his party from abroad. His remarks that India crossed the Line of Control (LoC) for the first time in September 2016 under the BJP-led Centre have not sat well with the Grand Old Party, which has countered his statements.

The disgruntlement between Tharoor and the Congress has emerged publicly in recent years. As speculations about the former diplomat’s future in the party rise, will he jump ship to the BJP?

Let’s take a closer look.

Tharoor, who is leading one of the seven all-party delegations sent abroad to put forth India’s stand on terrorism, has stirred a row with his comments in Panama.

Speaking about terrorism emanating from Pakistan at an Indian diaspora event, the Congress MP said, “What has changed in recent years is that the terrorists have also realised they will have a price to pay… For the first time, India breached the LoC (Line of Control) between India and Pakistan to conduct a surgical strike on a terror base, a launch pad… (after) the Uri strike in September 2016. That was something we had not done before. Even during the Kargil War, we had not crossed the LoC.”

He also mentioned the Balakot strikes by India after the 2019 Pulwama terror attack. “We not only crossed the LoC, we also crossed the international border (IB) and struck a terrorist headquarters. This time (in Operation Sindoor), we went beyond both of those… We struck in the Punjabi heartland of Pakistan.”

The Congress has maintained that surgical strikes were also carried out during the UPA government, but were not publicised.

An RTI reply by the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) had, however, said: “Army does not have any data pertaining to surgical strikes if carried out before September 29, 2016.”

CCing Tharoor on X, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera shared a media report of S Jaishankar, the then foreign secretary, telling a parliamentary committee in October 2016 that “target-specific, limited-calibre, counter-terrorist operations” had been carried out by the Army across the LoC in the past too.

Udit Raj, a Congress spokesperson, also took a jibe at Tharoor by asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make the leader a “super spokesperson of the BJP”.

Union minister Kiren Rijiju came to Tharoor’s defence, calling Congress’ reaction “political desperation”.

What does the Congress party want & How much they really care for the country? Should the Indian MPs go to foreign nation and speak against India and its Prime Minister?
There’s limit to political desperation! https://t.co/JiuYqpW2tN

— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) May 28, 2025

As the row escalated, Tharoor took to X on Thursday (May 29) to clarify his remarks, saying he was “clearly and explicitly speaking only about reprisals for terrorist attacks and not about previous wars”.

Targeting “critics and trolls”, he wrote that his remarks were “preceded by reference to the several attacks that have taken place in recent years alone, during which previous Indian responses were both restrained and constrained by our responsible respect for the LoC and the IB.”

After a long and successful day in Panama, i have to wind up at midnightvhere with departure for Bogota, Colombia in six hours, so I don’t really have time for this — but anyway: For those zealots fulminating about my supposed ignorance of Indian valour across the LoC: in tge…

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 29, 2025

Hours after his tweet, Khera shared a page from Tharoor’s book The Paradoxical Prime Minister, highlighting the lines where he accused the BJP government of using surgical strikes as a “political tool”.

I agree with that Dr @ShashiTharoor who wrote about surgical strikes in his book in 2018 – ‘The Paradoxical Prime Minister’. #ReadingNow pic.twitter.com/hAhsfwH0JT

— Pawan Khera 🇮🇳 (@Pawankhera) May 29, 2025

‘Rift’ between Tharoor, Congress

Tensions have been increasingly visible between Tharoor and the Congress since his all-out defence of the BJP government on Operation Sindoor and the ceasefire announcement between India and Pakistan after four days of military action.

As per a Frontline report, there is a general feeling within the Congress that Tharoor has crossed the “Lakshman Rekha” this time. The Congress’ central leadership is unhappy with the Thiruvananthapuram MP over what it perceives as straying from the party’s cautious stance on the operation.

Earlier, the Congress publicly expressed its displeasure over the
Centre picking Tharoor
as head of one of the multi-party delegations visiting foreign capitals post-Operation Sindoor.

Except for Anand Sharma, the government rejected other names suggested by the Congress for the global outreach.

Praising Modi after the ceasefire with Pakistan, Tharoor had said that the PM handled the conflict between “extremely well”.

His utterances in favour of the Modi government’s decisions and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala have hit a nerve with the Congress.

The United Democratic Front (UDF), led by the Grand Old Party, is seeking to unseat the LDF in the 2026 Kerala Assembly polls.

In February, Tharoor raised murmurs about his political future after saying he had “other options”. Affirming his loyalty to the Congress, he sought a larger role in party affairs. “Some in my own party oppose me, but I speak for India and Kerala’s future…If the party wants to utilise my strengths, I’ll be there. If not, I have other options,” he said.

This sparked rumours about the leader switching to the BJP. His selfie with Union Minister Piyush Goyal, who had previously mocked Tharoor’s “foreign accent”, further fuelled the speculations.

However, the MP from Kerala later clarified that by “options”, he did not mean joining the BJP.

Tharoor did not win any points with the party’s top brass by publicly speaking about a leadership vacuum in the Kerala Congress. The move was seen as him pitching himself as the chief ministerial candidate for the polls next year.

The growing chasm prompted a closed-door meeting between Tharoor and Rahul Gandhi.

Tharoor’s relationship with the Congress top brass has plunged since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. After the Grand Old Party’s drubbing, he was among the G-23 group of leaders questioning the Gandhi family’s leadership.

Tharoor also contested the elections for the Congress President post in 2022 against Mallikarjun Kharge, who was widely believed to be the official candidate. This further exposed the distance between him and the Gandhis.

While the Congress party appointed Tharoor for other posts after he
lost the election
, the narrative that he was being “sidelined” continued to dominate.

Now, the party is no longer hiding its chagrin at him.

Will Tharoor exit Congress?

The buzz around Tharoor leaving Congress has gained steam again. However, a friend of Tharoor has claimed that the Thiruvananthapuram MP would not leave the party.

“He has been a Congress MP ever since he entered politics. He is now in his fourth term. He is wildly popular in the literary circuit. If the party does not tap into his potential, he will slowly move away from party politics and stay as a public intellectual,” he told Frontline.

While Tharoor has previously dismissed claims about joining the BJP, this is Indian politics. And as they say — Never say never.

With inputs from agencies