“Natural expression of PM Modi’s global diplomacy”: BJP’s Sudhanshu Trivedi on Shashi Tharoor’s stand on India’s position on Ukraine-Russia conflict
New Delhi [India], March 19 (ANI): BJP leader Sudhanshu Trivedi on Wednesday said that senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor’s comments on India’s stand on Russia-Ukraine conflict are a “natural expression” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s global diplomacy.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference here, Trivedi highlighted Prime Minister Modi’s role in ending the Russia-Ukraine war and referred to his meeting with Presidents of both countries at an “interval of two weeks”.
“Whatever has been said by senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in the Raisina Dialogue today is the natural outcome of India’s wonderful global diplomatic policy under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi… Any expert in these matters can understand this… Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the only leader who met and talked with both the President of Russia and the President of Ukraine at an interval of two weeks, and both gave him equal importance,” the BJP leader said.
“Whatever senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has said is a natural expression of Prime Minister Modi’s global diplomacy….”
Earlier in a panel discussion at the Raisina Dialogue, Tharoor ‘admitted’ to wiping ‘egg off his face’ and conceding that India’s diplomatic stance gave the country a unique position to be friendly with both Russia and Ukraine, two nations at war since 2022.
“I am still wiping the egg off my face because I was one person in the parliamentary debate who actually criticised the Indian position at the time back in February 2022,” Tharoor said.
Explaining his reasoning for condemning the war, Tharoor had said, “On the well-worn grounds that Espen (Norway’s Foreign Minister) will understand because he and I talked about all this in my UN days, that there was a violation of the UN Charter, sovereignty of a member state, namely Ukraine, and we had always stood for the that there had been a violation of the principle of the inviolability of borders of a sovereign state, inadmissibility of the use of force to settle international disputes and all of those principles had been violated by one party, and we should have condemned it.”
“Well, 3 years later, it does look like I am the one with egg on my face because clearly, the policy has meant that India actually has a Prime Minister who can hug both the president of Ukraine and the president of Moscow two weeks apart and be accepted in both places and therefore India is in a position where it can make a difference to a lasting peace if it was so required in ways that very few countries would be able to,” Tharoor added.
Russia had invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, since then, United States President has been having “productive conversations” with the Russian President Vladimir Putin, talking about a ceasefire, and ending the “horrible war,” as said by President Trump on Truth Social.
