Did Tharoor Advise Jaishankar To Cool A Little Bit? Thiruvananthapuram MP Clarifies

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Saturday clarified that he has no difference of opinion with external affairs minister S Jaishankar over his reaction to the incident of Khalistanis pulling the Indian Flag down in London.

Tharoor further informed that his 'cool-off' advice to Jaishankar which he gave earlier has been misconstrued and misinterpreted.

"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.

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," Tharoor tweeted.

"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," Tharoor tweeted.

"Let's keep our foreign policy bipartisan. We are all Indians & all that matters should be our national interest," he added.

Did Tharoor advise Jaishankar to 'cool a little bit'?

In April reports claimed that Shashi Tharoor has urged External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar to "cool a bit" following the latter's remark "West has a bad habit of commenting on others" in response to the US and Germany's comments on Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from Lok Sabha.

Tharoor said that there is no need to react to every comment. "We need not be so thin-skinned. I think it's very important that as the government, we take something in stride. If we react to every comment, we are doing ourselves a disservice. I will strongly urge EAM Jaishankar to cool a little bit," ANI quoted Tharoor as saying.

What did Jaishankar say

Dr. Jaishankar slammed the West for commenting on India's internal issues.

"The West thinks it has a God-given right to comment on internal matters of other countries," Jaishankar said.

"I will give you the truthful answer (on why we see West commenting on India). There are two reasons. It is because the West has a bad habit of commenting on others. They somehow think it is some kind of God-given right. They will have to learn only by experience that if they keep doing this, other people will also start commenting (on their internal issues) and they (West) will not like it when it happens. And I see that happening," he said.

Jaishankar was answering to a question asked by Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya during the 'Meet and Greet', an interaction programme organised by Surya and Bengaluru Central MP P.C. Mohan with over 500 young voters, joggers and visitors at Cubbon Park in the city.