- Shashi Tharoor met the J&K Governor as part of External Affairs Committee work unrelated to Kashmir situation
- Tharoor said the committee focuses on India-Pakistan situation, Sino-Indian ties, and passport office function
- He denied assessing Kashmir’s domestic condition during the visit or hearing local voices
Congress's Shashi Tharoor, facing criticism over his comments on Kasmir, told NDTV today that he had gone to meet J&K Governor Manoj Sinha as part of an external affairs committee tasked with looking into issues that had nothing to do with the situation in the Union Territory.
"This is not about checking the condition in Kashmir," Tharoor said when asked about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
"All I did was to call on the Governor... I had no chance to listen to other people voices... We are not here looking at the domestic situation... we are the External Affairs Committee," he told NDTV.
"This visit is not about checking on the condition in Kashmir Valley... This committee is looking into three aspects -- India-Pakistan, Sino-Indian relationship and the functioning of passport offices," he added.
He, however, maintained silence regarding the Congress criticism over remark on the situation in Kashmir Valley.
Yesterday, Tharoor's tweet after his meeting with Manoj Sinha led to protests from Congress leaders.
After the meeting Tharoor had tweeted: "Had the honour of an excellent meeting with Lieutenant-Governor Shri @manojsinha at Lok Bhavan today. We discussed the situation in the state and the encouraging progress towards normalcy. When I arrived he was chatting to the President of the Kashmiri Writers' Association and the Women's Organisation - a positive outreach that I welcomed. Many challenges remain and much remains to be done, but I left the meeting feeling more positives than I have felt for a while".
The positive vibe and the "encouraging progress towards normalcy" comment did not go down well with the Congress or the political parties in the Valley.
Congress chief spokesperson in J&K, Ravinder Sharma, said Tharoor should have spared time to meet the people of the Kashmir Valley to understand the ground reality.
Speaking on similar lines, Bashir Ahmad, senior leader of the National Conference, said in sarcastic vein: "Everything is normal in Lok Bhawan... Congress' Ravinder Sharma rightly said that he should have people to know about ground reality".
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