'War of birds': Cong-Tharoor rift deepens with 'bird' posts on social media
New Delhi: From "the wings are yours" to "even a free bird must watch the skies", the Shashi Tharoor-Congress rift took a turn towards what some termed a "war of birds" on Thursday as party leader Manickam Tagore sought to establish the pecking order with an X message to his colleague.
Tharoor, who has been grabbing attention for his praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is known for his wordplay, started the bird analogy battle on Wednesday. And Tagore followed the cue a day later.
On Wednesday, 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..."
The post was seen by many as the Thiruvananthapuram MP's response to the dig with a veiled message that he would do his own thing and won't be restrained.
A day later, Tagore, Congress' whip in the Lok Sabha, said as if in direct response, "Don’t ask permission to fly. Birds don’t need clearance to rise…But in today even a free bird must watch the skies -- hawks, vultures, and 'eagles' are always hunting."
"Freedom isn’t free, especially when the predators wear patriotism as feathers," Tagore said.
To drive home his point, he shared a chart with the list of birds known as "hunters of the sky".
The chart contained descriptions of birds such as bald eagle, red-tailed hawk, turkey vulture and great-horned owl.
Asked about Tharoor's article on Operation Sindoor outreach in which he praised Modi, Kharge said at a press conference on Wednesday, "I can't read English well. His (Tharoor's) (English) language is very good, that's why we have made him a Congress Working Committee member."
"But I want to say that the people of the opposition together said they are with the Army that is fighting (during Operation Sindoor)... We (the Congress) said the country is paramount and we will work together (with the government). We said 'country first, party later'. Some people say 'Modi first, country later'. What can we do about that," he said.
Tharoor said in the article published in The Hindu that Modi's energy, dynamism and willingness to engage remained a "prime asset" for India on the global stage but deserved greater backing.
Remarks by the leader, who also headed one of the delegations sent abroad to spread the government's message on Operation Sindoor, were seen as likely to irk the Congress party and widen cracks in his ties with its leadership.
In the article, Tharoor said the diplomatic outreach following Operation Sindoor was a moment of national resolve and effective communication. The Prime Minister's Office had shared Tharoor's article on X.
Speaking at an event in Moscow, Tharoor on Tuesday said his article was not a sign of his "leaping to join" Prime Minister Modi's party but a statement of national unity, interest and standing up for India.
Following the Pahalgam terror 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.
