‘Shashi Tharoor always stands with country’: MoS Defence Sanjay Seth on Tharoor’s West Asia statement

RANCHI: Minister of State (MoS) for Defence Sanjay Seth on Saturday praised Shashi Tharoor’s support for India’s foreign policy concerning West Asia, asserting that Tharoor consistently stands with the nation and speaks “the truth”.

The Minister further said that Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi should “learn from this”, emphasising that every decision made by the ruling government should not be blindly criticised by the opposition parties.

“Shashi Tharoor always stands with the country… he always says the truth. Rahul Gandhi should learn from this. Not everything should be opposed… Because of PM Modi’s diplomacy, the whole country is living in peace and there is no panic here. There is no shortage of diesel, petrol and gas. The propaganda and the panic which was created, it was done by the leaders of Congress party… All Congress party leaders should learn from him…” Seth told ANI.

Earlier, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor described India’s response to the ongoing West Asia crisis as an exercise in “responsible statecraft,” stressing that restraint in such a volatile situation reflects strength rather than weakness.

In an interview with ANI, Tharoor said, “Restraint is not surrender. Restraint is strength… it shows that we know what our interests are and we will act first of all to protect our interests.”

Referring to the conflict involving Iran, Israel and the United States, Tharoor, however, said India should have expressed condolences earlier following the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, while maintaining a cautious diplomatic stance.

“There is a difference between condemnation and condolence… condolence is an expression of sympathy,” he noted.

Additionally, he also called for a clearer end goal in the ongoing military campaign. Tharoor questioned the strategic direction of the conflict.

“We don’t know exactly what the desired end point is… I would have liked to have thought there was some strategic logic behind this assault,” he said.

Hence, he urged countries like India to play a constructive diplomatic role in de-escalation efforts. “What many countries like us ought to be doing… is to actually take an initiative to call for peace, to give both sides a ladder to climb down,” he said.