The internal rift within the Congress deepened further on Wednesday as senior party leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor appeared to hit back at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge with a cryptic quote shared on X (formerly Twitter), following criticism over his praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The quote posted by Tharoor read: “Don’t ask permission to fly. The wings are yours, and the sky belongs to no one.” The message, though indirect, was widely interpreted as a subtle jab at the Congress leadership for repeatedly targeting him over his public appreciation of the Prime Minister during the recently concluded Operation Sindoor.
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) June 25, 2025
Kharge Criticises Tharoor’s Modi Remarks
Earlier in the day, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge slammed Tharoor for calling PM Modi a “prime asset for India” during the international outreach initiative. “Shashi Tharoor’s language is very good. That is why he has been kept in the Congress Working Committee,” Kharge said while addressing a gathering in Gulbarga.
He added, “We stood together in Operation Sindoor. We said that the country comes first. But some people say Modi comes first and the country comes later. So, what should we do?”
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Kharge’s remarks reflect the growing unease within the party over Tharoor’s consistent praise of Modi, particularly during international assignments.
Tharoor Clarifies, Hits Back at Critics
Responding to the criticism, Tharoor earlier clarified that Operation Sindoor was an effort to project national unity on global platforms, and not a signal of him “leaping to join” the BJP. He dismissed the controversy around his comments, blaming “critics and trolls” for twisting his statements and insisted that he had “better things to do”.
The Congress MP had recently acknowledged his differences with the party leadership but played down the extent of any internal rift, asserting that he remained committed to the Congress cause.
Tharoor’s latest praise for the Prime Minister comes shortly after he met PM Modi on June 11 at his official residence in Delhi, along with seven multi-party delegations that had participated in Operation Sindoor.
