India-Pakistan remarks: Shashi Tharoor crossed ‘Lakshman rekha’, does not reflect party’s views, says Congress

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has “crossed the Lakshman rekha” with his repeated comments on the India-Pakistan conflict, senior party sources said on Wednesday, signaling internal discontent over the high-profile MP’s remarks.

The assertion came during a closed-door meeting at the Congress headquarters in Delhi, attended by top leaders, including former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, general secretaries K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and senior leader Sachin Pilot. The meeting was reportedly called to strategise the party’s response to the escalating India-Pakistan tensions and to ensure a unified voice on national security issues.

Leadership issues ‘clear message’

While the Congress leadership did not explicitly name Tharoor, sources indicated that the message from the party’s top brass was clear – this is a time for amplifying the party’s collective stand, not for airing individual critiques. “We are a democratic party and people keep expressing their opinion, but this time, Tharoor has crossed the Lakshman rekha,” a senior party source said, emphasising that such high-stakes moments demand disciplined messaging.

Tharoor’s sharp critique of US stance

The internal pushback against Tharoor follows his pointed criticism of former US President Donald Trump’s recent statement on the India-Pakistan standoff. In a May 12 post on X, Tharoor had described Trump’s comments as “disappointing for India in four important ways,” arguing that they:

1. Create a false equivalence – Tharoor said the remarks equated “the victim and the perpetrator,” ignoring the US’ past recognition of Pakistan’s links to cross-border terrorism.
2. Offer an unearned negotiating platform – He argued that India “will never negotiate with a terrorist gun pointed at its head,” rejecting any legitimacy for Pakistan’s demands.
3. Internationalise the Kashmir issue – Tharoor pointed out that such statements risked “internationalising” the Kashmir dispute, a core objective of the militants, undermining India’s consistent position that the matter is an internal one.
4. Re-hyphenate India and Pakistan – He noted that Trump’s framing reversed decades of diplomatic progress, where US presidents, starting with Bill Clinton in 2000, avoided clubbing their India visits with Pakistan, recognising the distinct global stature of the two nations.