New Delhi [India], March 19 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sambit Patra on Wednesday said that Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi should come forward and appreciate Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's stand on India's position on the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

'Shashi Tharoor understands diplomacy, he had been in the UN for a very long time. He has appreciated PM Modi's stand in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Other leaders of Congress should also learn from Shashi Tharoor instead of Speaking against PM Modi and the nation every time... Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi should come forward and appreciate Shashi Tharoor's stand,' Patra told reporters.

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 Vladamir Putin, talking about a ceasefire, and ending the 'horrible war,' as said by President Trump on Truth Social. (ANI)