Shashi Tharoor & Congress: The Couple That Can’t Live With Or Without Each Other
Shashi Tharoor & Congress: The Couple That Can’t Live With Or Without Each Other Reported By, Edited By Last Updated: June 22, 2026, 16:11 IST
Shashi Tharoor & Congress: The Couple That Can’t Live With Or Without Each Other Reported By, Edited By Last Updated: June 22, 2026, 16:11 IST The Congress says Shashi Tharoor times his comments deliberately when the party has taken a line to question the PM. Tharoor’s supporters say they read his comments wrong Rapid Read Shashi Tharoor. (X) Can Shashi Tharoor and his party, the Congress, ever be friends? Seems unlikely. The truce between the two lasted till the Kerala elections. With the polls over, the ‘friendship’ too seems to be over. There are two immediate provocations. One was Tharoor’s recent comment on the PM Modi-US President Trump interaction at the G7 summit. Pawan Khera posted on X that Tharoor and his “admiration for PM Modi appears to have transcended the limitations of the physical world". 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.According to the official MEA readout of the Modi–Trump meeting on the sidelines of the… pic.twitter.com/6U7BFRxAgZ — Pawan Khera 🇮🇳 ಪವನ್ ಖೇರಾ (@Pawankhera) June 20, 2026 Not that Tharoor remained mum.
He too posted, “For those who believe I ‘heard’ words that Narendra Modi never said at the G7, I was merely alluding to widely published reports about his remarks." Even his Kashmir visit and his thumbs-up to the peace outreach evoked a reprimand from Khera. 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: this was Google Gemini’s summary: “At the G7… — Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) June 20, 2026 In the run-up to the elections, Rahul Gandhi had heard out Tharoor and assured him that his version of growth for Kerala would be implemented. The Congress then had a vested interest. During the elections, the party did not want to antagonise Gen Z or young/first-time voters. Hence the need to keep Tharoor by their side. But with the polls over, the need to be friends seems over. But why can’t these public spats be avoided by picking up the phone? The Congress says Tharoor times his comments deliberately when the party has taken a line to question the PM.
Tharoor’s supporters say they read his comments wrong and if they had picked up the phone, he could have explained. So this seems like a deliberate attempt to attack and malign him publicly. VIDEO | Delhi: On PM Modi’s meeting with President Trump, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor says, “It seems to have gone a long way towards warming up relations once again between the two countries because the feedback I’ve been getting from various sources on both sides is that the… pic.twitter.com/aHNeIQGW05— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 19, 2026 Both sides are waiting for the other to blink first. For Tharoor to be asked to leave means he gets to be the martyr, plus doesn’t lose the seat. But for the Congress, it’s a dilemma. Some feel it’s best to weed out those who seem to be tilting towards the BJP or PM. Given the season of defections and exit, the Congress wants to take no chance. But the issue is that telling him to leave or issuing a show-cause notice will earn the perception that Congress is anti-nation.
The BriefWire