Stoking another controversy, Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor today said Saudi Arabia could be a “valuable interlocutor” between India and Pakistan, but quickly clarified he did not mean Riyadh should be a mediator.
In comments that evoked strong condemnation from BJP and CPI, Tharoor said, “We feel that Saudi Arabia, of course, has a long and close relationship with Pakistan, but that makes Saudi Arabia even a more valuable interlocutor for us.” Tharoor is currently accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on a three-day visit to the oil-rich kingdom.
“When we tell them about our experience, Saudi Arabia listens as somebody who is not in any way an enemy of Pakistan but rather is a friend of Pakistan and therefore I am sure will listen with sympathy and concern to a matter of this nature,” he said, when asked by reporters what kind of cooperation did he expect from Riyadh, considering its close relations with Islamabad.
Just hours after making the remarks, Tharoor, who earlier also landed in controversies for tweeting on government’s austerity measures and immigration policy, came out with an official statement and also took to Twitter to clear the air.
In the statement, he clarified, “What I said was that Saudi Arabia was a valuable interlocutor for India. Any other interpretation was neither meant nor warranted.”
Tharoor also tweeted, “If I speak to u, u are my interlocutor! I mentioned the Saudis as our interlocutors, ie the people we are here to speak to. Some misinterpretn.”
He added, “Good day of mtgs, marred in some Indian media by misunderstanding of word ‘interlocutor’. An interlocutor is someone u spk to, nothing more.”
