Shashi Tharoor hails Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha speech as 'barnstorming', says Smriti Irani scored own-goal

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday hailed Rahul Gandhi's speech during the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha as "barnstorming" while claiming that Union minister Smriti Irani's remarks in the Lower House focussed on "whataboutery" that amounted to an 'own-goal'.

Tharoor, known for his penchant for using rarely used English words often sending Twitterati scurrying for dictionaries, described Gandhi's address as barnstorming which according to Cambridge dictionary means 'exciting and energetic'.

The Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram also hit out at Irani for her criticism of Gandhi and the Congress party in her speech during the no-confidence motion.

"Lively scenes in the LokSabha during & following Rahul Gandhi's barnstorming speech in support of the no-confidence motion. Smriti Irani's response focused entirely on whataboutery, reciting a series of incidents & atrocities, going back many decades, under Congress rule, that she claimed proved that things were just as bad earlier,' he said on X.

"This line of argument indirectly supported the Opposition’s claims of GOI's failures because all she was saying amounted to a 'so what? You were bad too'. Resorting to whataboutery is always an admission that you have no substantive refutation to offer. An own-goal, Smriti ji!" he said.

In his speech, Gandhi launched a broadside against the Narendra Modi government over its handling of the violence in the northeastern state.

Gandhi, in his first comments in the House after the restoration of his membership, also slammed Modi for not visiting Manipur.

Slamming the Congress, Irani in her remarks recounted the horrors of the Emergency, saying the party's history is smeared in blood. The BJP MP also raised the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the unrest in Kashmir during the Congress regimes at the Centre.