Shashi Tharoor backs Jaishankar, calls him ‘a friend and a skilled Foreign Minister’

New Delhi, 1st July 2023: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor resorted to Twitter on Saturday to say he had no disagreement with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on his reaction to Khalistanis taking down the Indian flag in London.

Tharoor said, “I have no difference of opinion with the EAM over that. I regard him (Jaishankar) as a friend and a skilled and able foreign minister.”

A group of demonstrators carrying separatist Khalistani flags and chanting pro-Khalistani slogans took down the tricolour flying atop the Indian High Commission in London in March of this year.

Meanwhile, India lodged a strong protest with the British government over the safety of its diplomatic post, questioning the lack of adequate security on the premises.

Tharoor further said, “It’s not our style to poke our fingers in the eyes of foreign countries without provocation. The flag incident was a provocation and India’s response was fitting. When that incident occurred, I expressed outrage even before MEA did, since I was accosted by cameras at the Lok Sabha as soon as it happened. Outrage was indeed the most appropriate response.”

Further clarifying a video circulating on social media that claims Tharoor asked Jaishankar to ‘cool it’ over the flag incident, Tharoor stated that his comment urging restraint was in response to Jaishankar’s remarks to the BJP Yuva Morcha at Cubbon Park in Bangalore against the West, which were inevitably picked up by the national and international media and played poorly abroad.

The Senior Congress Leader said, “Friends have forwarded me a message doing the rounds from the usual trolls claiming that my advice to EAM @DrSJaishankar to “cool it” was over his reaction to the incident of the Khalistanis pulling our flag down outside the Indian Embassy. It wasn’t.”

He concluded by saying, “Let’s keep our foreign policy bipartisan. We are all Indians and all that matters should be our national interest.”