‘Better things to do’: Shashi Tharoor hits back as Congress erupts over his ‘surgical strike’ remark abroad

In a political firestorm that has leapt across borders, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has rebuffed fierce criticism from within his own party over comments he made lauding India’s surgical strikes under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure.

Tharoor, currently on a diplomatic outreach mission across Latin America, dismissed his critics as "zealots and trolls" and insisted his statements were being deliberately twisted.

“I genuinely have better things to do,” Tharoor posted late May 26 night from Panama, brushing off the online uproar that erupted after he acknowledged the Modi government's decision to breach the Line of Control (LoC) in retaliation against terror attacks — an action he termed “unprecedented.”

Tharoor clarified that his remarks were specific to India’s retaliatory actions against terrorism in recent years, not a dismissal of prior military efforts. “I was clearly and explicitly speaking only about reprisals for terrorist attacks and not about previous wars,” he wrote on X, as he prepared to depart for Colombia.

But that distinction did little to quell the fury back home.

Congress leaders reacted with rare, coordinated ire. Udit Raj, head of the party’s unorganized workers’ wing, accused Tharoor of betraying the Congress legacy. “Alas! I could prevail upon PM Modi to declare you as super spokesperson of BJP... How could you denigrate the golden history of Congress?” Raj posted, invoking India’s military triumphs in 1965 and 1971, and referencing surgical strikes carried out under the UPA government that he said were devoid of “drum beating.”

The criticism snowballed when senior Congress figures like Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera echoed Raj’s post, amplifying internal dissent. Khera went further, sharing a photograph of Indian Army officers from the 1965 war standing outside a captured Pakistani police station in Burki — just 11 kilometers from Lahore.

He also resurfaced a media quote from former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asserting that “multiple surgical strikes” had occurred under UPA rule. “CC @ShashiTharoor,” Khera quipped, his sarcasm unmistakable.

Ironically, Tharoor found an unlikely defender in BJP minister Kiren Rijiju. In a sharply worded post, Rijiju accused the Congress of undermining national interest for political gain. “There’s a limit to political desperation,” he wrote. “Should Indian MPs go to a foreign nation and speak against India and its Prime Minister?”

The controversy has spotlighted the widening ideological fault lines within the Congress party, as well as its struggle to maintain narrative cohesion in the face of BJP's increasingly dominant national security rhetoric.

Tharoor, known for his diplomatic finesse and international credibility, appears unfazed. “Critics are welcome to distort my words as they see fit,” he said, turning the page with a pointed sign-off: “Goodnight.”

As he flies from Panama to Bogotá, the turbulence around his remarks is far from over. And for the Congress party, the question remains: can it afford open fire on one of its most prominent global voices while the world is watching?