Sometimes parties feel you’re being disloyal: Shashi Tharoor’s nation first message

Amid ongoing speculation about a rift with the Congress leadership, senior party leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday asserted that political parties must cooperate with each other in the interest of national security. Speaking at an event in Kochi on 'Peace, Harmony and National Development', Tharoor said that the nation must come first, and parties are merely vehicles to build a better country.

"Which is your first loyalty? To my mind, the nation comes first. Parties are a means of making the nation better. So, to my mind, whichever party you belong to, the objective of the party is to create a better India in its own way. Now, parties have every right to disagree about the best way of doing that," he said.

The Congress MP also addressed the recent criticism he has faced for supporting the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government over its handling of Operation Sindoor and matters related to national defence.