Tharoor defends praise for Modi on sailor safety, Congress hits back

The Congress party on Saturday criticized senior leader Shashi Tharoor for his reported admiration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stance on protecting Indian civilian sailors. Tharoor, the party's Thiruvananthapuram MP, later said his statement was being given a 'partisan twist'.

The controversy began when Tharoor reportedly said that Modi made his point clear both in public and private meetings with US President Donald Trump at the G7 summit in France. Tharoor was quoted as saying, 'It is important to convey the message that in wartime, civilian sailors on commercial ships should not be targets of combat. They are not soldiers, and that is the message PM Modi conveyed.'

Responding to these remarks, Congress media department head Pawan Khera told reporters that he had not seen Tharoor's full statement but noted that the official India-US joint statement made no mention of the killing of three Indian sailors by US forces in the Gulf of Oman, nor of Trump's repeated claim that he secured a ceasefire by threatening India with trade consequences, nor of the attack on the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena.

Tharoor later wrote on X: 'Frankly, I find it extraordinary that a statement about protecting Indian civilian sailors is being twisted into a partisan political controversy. Three Indians lost their lives. My remarks were about the safety of our citizens and the principle that civilian seafarers should never be targets of military action. If some people are more interested in scoring political points than addressing that concern, that says more about them than it does about me.'

He added that concern for Indian lives should unite, not divide, the nation.

Khera then posted a video clip of his own press conference on X, saying, 'My senior colleague Dr Shashi Tharoor's admiration for PM Modi appears to have transcended the limitations of the physical world. He now seems capable of hearing what Modi doesn't even say.' Khera pointed out that the official readout of the Modi-Trump meeting from the Ministry of External Affairs made no mention of the killing of three Indian sailors or of Modi challenging Trump's repeated ceasefire claim.

'And yet, Tharoor ji somehow heard forceful assertions, robust pushback, and uncompromising diplomacy that never made it into the official record,' Khera said.

In a subsequent post, Tharoor countered: 'For those who believe I 'heard' words that @narendramodi never said at the G-7, I was merely alluding to widely published reports about his remarks. If you want to hear a report, here's one.' He shared a link to a media report and a summary from Google Gemini stating that Modi directly addressed G7 leaders on protecting civilian maritime workers.