Tharoor was part of govt delegation, had to defend it abroad: Chavan

Shashi Tharoor was a part of a government delegation that was sent abroad, and being a member, one has to defend the government, said Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan amid a row over the MP's recent remarks that have irked the party leadership.

He, however, sounded cautious about ''what happens to Mr Shashi Tharoor in future'', saying, ''I don't know and would not like to comment on that.'' Both Chavan and Tharoor were part of the now-defunct 'group of 23' that had written to then Congress president Sonia Gandhi in 2020 for the overhaul of the party organisation.

Following the April 22 Pahalgam attack, Tharoor has been making comments on the India-Pakistan conflict and the diplomatic outreach that are at variance with the stand of the Congress.

The opposition party has been questioning the government over US President Donald Trump's claims of mediating a ceasefire between the two countries.

In an interview with PTI, Chavan claimed that the diplomatic delegations that were sent abroad following Operation Sindoor could not meet people of any substance abroad and blamed the foreign ministry for it.

Tharoor had led a multi-party delegation to the US and four other countries to convey India's stand following Operation Sindoor.

Asked about the controversy over Tharoor's remarks with many in the Congress seeing it as defence of the government, Chavan said, ''When you have agreed to become a part of the government delegation, you are only going with the specific purpose of defending the Government of India, notwithstanding which party you belong to.'' ''It is a commitment that you are going abroad and you will only plead the case, whatever the government tells you to do....He (Tharoor) himself is an experienced diplomat. He was part of the government delegation, the purpose was not to show our differences there,'' he said.

''Now, what happens to Shashi Tharoor in future, I don't know. I would not comment on that. This was a government delegation where every member had committed to defend the government line, period,'' Chavan told PTI.

The fact that delegations did not succeed is not the fault of the members but of the Ministry of External Affairs, he said, adding that there had been a ''complete failure'' of the Indian foreign policy post-Operation Sindoor.

''The prime minister thinks that if he is personally friendly with a foreign leader and lavishes gifts, Indian foreign policy will work fine. But it does not work that way. The PM met Chinese president Xi Jinping 18 times, he also went to meet Nawaz Sharif uninvited, what happened?''.

Referring to the row over the selection of the delegation members, Chavan said he has been a parliamentary affairs minister, and there are two types of delegations.

''There is strictly a parliamentary delegation which is constituted by the Speaker. There, the composition of the delegation strictly consists of the percentage of members in the House, and then it is decided which party will have how many people in the delegation,'' he said.

However, this was not a parliamentary delegation but a government delegation to address a specific need, Chavan noted.

''The government selected some people. I think the whole process could have been handled more delicately. There was a special situation, and the Congress agreed to participate. ''The government selected some people, and the Congress gave some different names. If the names were not accepted...it should not have been made public,'' he said.

But unfortunately, unnecessary controversy arose in a situation when ''we wanted to project a picture that the whole country is behind the government'', Chavan said.

Citing the example of 1971, he said Indira Gandhi had also sent bipartisan delegations -- Atal Bihari Vajpayee to the US, Piloo Modi to Europe and Hiren Mukherjee of the communist party to Russia.

''They were people of stature. What happened here? Nobody of substance met the delegations. This was not the fault of the delegation; it is the fault of the foreign ministry. They could not get substantive appointments for the delegations,'' Chavan alleged.

Tharoor has often drawn criticism from his own party and jibes aimed at him by Congress leaders for his stand.

Last week, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge took a jibe at Tharoor and said his party believes in the ''country first'' mantra, but for some, it is ''Modi first and country later''.

Soon after, Tharoor put out a cryptic post on X with an image of a bird and this caption: ''Don't ask permission to fly. The wings are yours. And the sky belongs to no one.''

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)