"Wings Are Yours": Tharoor's Cryptic Post After Congress Chief's Rebuke
New Delhi: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday scoffed at senior party leader Shashi Tharoor for heaping praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that for Congress, the nation comes first — but for some, it’s Modi first and nation second.
Hours after Congress chief’s jibe at Tharoor, Thiruvananthapuram MP shared a post on X, which is viewed as a reply to Congress’s recent criticism especially Kharge’s on him. The bird’s photograph carries the message, “Don’t ask permission to fly. The wings are yours. And the sky belongs to no one”.
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— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) June 25, 2025
While helming a press conference at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi, the Congress Chief said that Tharoor was a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) due to his good English skills.
“I don’t know how to read English; he [Tharoor] has a very good command of English, which is why we made him a CWC member. The entire opposition said, ‘We are with our Army, our soldiers, and Operation Sindoor.’ For us, the nation comes first, but some say ‘Modi first and nation second’—so what can we do about that?,” Kharge said, addressing the conference.
Kharge’s comment came amid brewing rift between Tharoor and the Congress after the Thiruvananthapuram MP was selected to lead an all-party delegation for Operation Sindoor outreach.
After returning the five-nation outreach mission Tharoor showered praises on PM Modi in an article. In an opinion piece published in The Hindu, titled “Lessons from Operation Sindoor’s global outreach”, Tharoor called PM Modi a “prime asset for India” and lauded his “energy, dynamism and willingness”.
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“PM Modi’s energy, dynamism, and willingness to engage remain a prime asset for India on the global stage but deserve greater backing,” Tharoor wrote in the column.
Tharoor, however, clarified that the Operation Sindoor’s global outreach was not a sign of him leaping to join BJP, dismissing multiple media reports. Congress MP’s multiple remarks during the outreach met with severe criticism by his party colleagues, and the opinion piece accelerated it.
