Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Saturday pushed back against criticism from his own party over his remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's handling of the Indian sailors' issue.

His response came after Congress leader Pawan Khera took a swipe at him for allegedly attributing remarks to PM Modi that do not appear in the official record of the prime minister's meeting with US President Donald Trump.

Tharoor defends remarks

Responding to the criticism on X, Tharoor said:

"Three Indians lost their lives. My remarks were about the safety of our citizens and the principle that civilian seafarers should never be targets of military action."

"If some people are more interested in scoring political points than addressing that concern, that says more about them than it does about me."

"Concern for Indian lives should unite us, not divide us," he added.

The controversy began after Tharoor was reported as saying that PM Modi had raised concerns about civilian sailors during his interactions with Trump.

Khera's sharp swipe

The remarks triggered criticism from Congress leader Pawan Khera, who questioned whether PM Modi had actually made those comments.

Sharing a video clip of Tharoor's remarks, Khera wrote on X:

"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."

Khera pointed to the official Ministry of External Affairs readout of the Modi-Trump meeting on the sidelines of the G7 Summit, saying it contained no mention of the killing of three Indian sailors in the Gulf of Oman.

"This was the first Modi-Trump meeting after Operation Sindoor, yet there is no indication that Modi challenged Trump's repeated claim, now made over 120 times, that he secured a ceasefire by threatening India with trade consequences," he said.

Khera also noted that the official statement did not mention the alleged attack on the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena, which had participated in MILAN-2026.

"And yet, Tharoor ji somehow heard forceful assertions, robust pushback and uncompromising diplomacy that never made it into the official record. Perhaps the rest of us are constrained by ordinary human senses. For devotees of the 'Maha-Maanav Modi', the less he says, the more they hear," Khera added.

 Tharoor's rebuttal

In an apparent rebuttal, Tharoor later clarified that he had not attributed any words to PM Modi that were not already in the public domain.

"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," he wrote while sharing a media report.

Tharoor also posted what he described as a Google Gemini-generated summary stating that PM Modi had raised concerns about the safety of civilian seafarers and global shipping routes during the G7 Outreach Session in Evian, France, following the Gulf of Oman incident in which three Indian sailors were killed.

Defending his position, Tharoor said, "I have never in my life been accused of misrepresenting or distorting any facts or statements and I stand by my summary of what I read in the print media about these remarks, which were reportedly made when our PM was seated next to @realDonaldTrump."

Published on: Jun 21, 2026 10:51 AM IST