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While Congress started off confidently, Home Minister Amit Shah’s speech on Operation Mahadev may have put the party on the backfoot.
Congress MPs Shashi Tharoor (left) and Manish Tewari (right). (Image: PTI)
Silence speaks volumes. It often ends up silencing those who want to make noise. The Operation Sindoor debate in Parliament began with the Congress party feeling confident. They believed they had two issues to silence the government on. Firstly, Trump’s claim that he brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. Secondly, the whereabouts of the Pahalgam terrorists.
The Congress wanted to highlight these issues and silence the ‘dissenters,’ specifically party MPs Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari. Both were part of the multi-party delegation for the Narendra Modi government’s outreach programme after Operation Sindoor. However, they irked their party by being chosen as representatives by the government. They were not Congress’s official choices, leading to a distancing of the Congress from these two. It was not evident at first that Congress did not want them to speak on the Operation Sindoor debate. Most of the delegation members, like DMK MP Kanimozhi, NCP-SP MP Supriya Sule, and BJP MP Tejaswi Surya, did speak. However, Tewari and Tharoor did not.
Sources close to Tharoor indicated that he was asked to speak at the last minute. He conveyed that, as the party whip was applicable to him, he would be expected to criticise the government. However, having defended Operation Sindoor globally and personally believing it was successful, Tharoor opted out. News18 is privy to the fact that Manish Tewari sent a mail to Congress expressing his desire to speak but received no response. A day later, he posted cryptically on X, quoting Manoj Kumar’s famous movie, saying, “Bharat ka rehne waala hun, Bharat ki baat sunaata hun (I’m an Indian, I tell the story of India),” implying that the nation was more important than the party.
But does Congress have the last laugh? Home Minister Amit Shah provided details of Operation Mahadev, addressing Congress’s allegations and questions on “where are the terrorists?”
Both Tharoor and Manish do not wish to openly confront their party and will remain silent for now. However, their discontent is evident. Their supporters argue that, being astute politicians, they would have spoken like Indians, without necessarily embarrassing their party.
The issue was that Congress lacked confidence in them. This led to their silencing. Ironically, Congress now finds itself at a loss for words regarding Operation Sindoor.
Pallavi Ghosh has covered politics and Parliament for 15 years, and has reported extensively on Congress, UPA-I and UPA-II, and has now included the Finance Ministry and Niti Aayog in her reportage. She has als…Read More
Pallavi Ghosh has covered politics and Parliament for 15 years, and has reported extensively on Congress, UPA-I and UPA-II, and has now included the Finance Ministry and Niti Aayog in her reportage. She has als… Read More
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