Tharoor, who represents Thiruvananthapuram in the Lok Sabha, posted on X that he had an “excellent meeting” with Sinha at Lok Bhavan and discussed the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. He said he welcomed what he described as positive outreach after seeing the Lieutenant Governor speaking with representatives of the Kashmiri Writers’ Association and a women’s organisation. He added that many challenges remained and that much still needed to be done, but said he left the meeting feeling “more positives” than he had felt for a while.
The remarks triggered immediate pushback from Congress leaders in Jammu and Kashmir, who argued that any assessment of normalcy should have followed wider engagement with residents, party workers and elected representatives. Ravinder Sharma, chief spokesperson of the party’s Jammu and Kashmir unit, said Tharoor should have spared time to meet people in the Valley to gain a better understanding of ground realities. The criticism reflected unease over a statement seen by local Congress figures as too close to the administration’s own narrative.
The controversy came a day after Tharoor was criticised by party colleagues over comments interpreted as praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera had taken a swipe at him, prompting Tharoor to say he reads widely and had not distorted any statement. The Kashmir row has therefore added to a pattern of public friction between Tharoor and sections of his party, even as the Congress seeks to maintain a firm line against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government on federalism, civil liberties and Jammu and Kashmir’s political status.
Jammu and Kashmir remains a sensitive political issue for the Congress, which has backed the restoration of full statehood and criticised the manner in which the region’s special status was revoked in August 2019. The former state was split into two Union Territories after the abrogation of Article 370, placing law and order under the control of the central administration. Although Assembly elections later restored an elected government in Srinagar, the Union Territory structure has left crucial powers with the Lieutenant Governor.
That division of authority has kept statehood, security and democratic accountability at the centre of politics in the region. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s National Conference government has repeatedly pressed for restoration of statehood, while the Congress has supported that demand as part of its broader opposition to the 2019 restructuring. Against this backdrop, Tharoor’s endorsement of “progress towards normalcy” was seen by some party colleagues as politically awkward, particularly because it followed a meeting with the Lieutenant Governor rather than with the local party organisation.
Security remains a core part of the debate. The Pahalgam terror attack of April 2025, which killed 26 people, mostly tourists, disrupted the administration’s attempt to project stability through tourism and public events. Several tourist sites were shut after the attack and later reopened in phases under heavy security. The government has highlighted tourist footfall, infrastructure projects, public outreach and a decline in street violence as signs of improvement, while opposition parties and civil society voices have pointed to continuing political restrictions, security operations and public anxiety.
Tharoor’s formulation appeared to acknowledge both sides, noting progress while saying challenges remained. But critics inside the Congress objected less to the qualification and more to the political optics. For party leaders in Jammu and Kashmir, the issue was not merely whether the administration had undertaken outreach, but whether elected voices and ordinary residents had been adequately heard before a national leader offered a broadly positive assessment.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is expected to use the episode to argue that opposition leaders privately acknowledge improvement in Jammu and Kashmir even while criticising the government publicly. Congress leaders, by contrast, are likely to frame the matter as an individual remark that does not alter the party’s position on statehood, democratic rights and accountability for security lapses.
