'Even a free bird...': Manickam Tagore launches sharp barb after Tharoor's cryptic bird post

Manickam Tagore

Congress leader Manickam Tagore has launched a sharp barb at Shashi Tharoor amid the ongoing turf war between the Congress party and Shashi Tharoor. This came after Tharoor took to X yesterday to share a post that spoke about how one should not ask for permission to fly.

"Don’t ask permission to fly. Birds don’t need clearance to rise…But in today even a free bird must watch the skies—hawks, vultures, and ‘eagles’ are always hunting. Freedom isn’t free, especially when the predators wear patriotism as feathers," Tagore wrote on X.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had, on Wednesday, tweeted a cryptic post-- "Don't ask permission to fly. The wings are yours, and the Sky belongs to no one." His post came barely an hour after Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge took a dig at the senior Congress leader, saying that for the party, the nation comes first — but some say ‘Modi first and nation second.’

Kharge also hinted that the party will not take any action against Tharoor. The Congress MP has been praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has also become one of the leading faces of India’s diplomatic outreach following “Operation Sindoor" in the last few months.

The controversy involving Tharoor began with an opinion piece written by the Congress MP, in which he called PM Modi’s energy and global engagement 'a prime asset' for India. The timing of the opinion piece, which came in the wake of Operation Sindoor and the Pahalgam terror attack, raised eyebrows within the Congress, and many people questioned whether Tharoor’s words were aligned with the party’s firm stand against the BJP’s foreign and defence policies.