The Congress has castigated its MP Shashi Tharoor for purportedly saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi had "forcefully made his point" about the US navy’s killing of Indian seafarers when he met President Donald Trump at the G7 summit in France this week.

In an interview with PTI on Friday, Tharoor was quoted as saying: "The reality of the world is that the US is an indispensable power in the world, and India can't just turn its back on the US, even if there have been a couple of actions and statements that may have hurt our feelings.

“When it comes to the... Indian sailors, the Prime Minister rather forcefully made his point, both in the public speech and I understand privately, that you have to understand that we have sailors in various ships.

"It was not an Indian ship, but even in other countries’ flag vessels there are lots of Indian crew and sailors. And as long as they are civilians doing commercial shipping, they should not be treated like combatants in a war.”

Tharoor added: “I think all of us, certainly India, will hope that the peace will stick and that we will have a long-lasting peace in the region, in which case this question remains theoretical or academic. But as a general principle, what Mr Modi has said is right. That is that seafarers should be exempt from combat attacks.”

Congress publicity head Pawan Khera stressed that the official Indian readout of the Modi-Trump meeting carried no mention of the US forces' killing of three Indian mariners in the Gulf of Oman.

"My senior colleague Dr Shashi Tharoor's admiration for PM Modi appears to have transcended the limitations of the physical world. He now seems capable of hearing what Modi doesn't even say," Khera posted on X on Saturday.

He added: "And yet, Tharoor ji somehow heard forceful assertions, robust pushback, and uncompromising diplomacy that never made it into the official record. Perhaps the rest of us are constrained by ordinary human senses. For devotees of the 'Maha-Maanav Modi', the less he says, the more they hear."

Tharoor responded to his critics on X, saying: "My remarks were about the safety of our citizens and the principle that civilian seafarers should never be targets of military action. If some people are more interested in scoring political points than addressing that concern, that says more about them than it does about me."

The Thiruvananthapuram MP’s remarks on Modi had come a couple of days after the meeting between the two world leaders. During a media interaction with Modi, Trump had been asked if he had condolences to offer for the sailors slain by his forces.

He replied: "Yeah, I do. I heard about that. It’s a rough profession, no question about it. We work together on it (gesturing towards Modi). This has been happening throughout time."

The Congress has consistently criticised India’s lukewarm response to the US bombing of multiple merchant ships carrying Indian crew members, with one of the attacks killing three Indians on June 10. Modi is yet to publicly express condolences over the deaths.

"According to the official MEA readout of the Modi-Trump meeting on the sidelines of the G7: 1. There is no mention of the cold-blooded killing of three Indian sailors by the United States in the Gulf of Oman," Khera’s post said.

“2. This was the first Modi-Trump meeting after Operation Sindoor, yet there is no indication that Modi challenged Trump's repeated claim — now made over 120 times — that he secured a ceasefire by threatening India with trade consequences.

"3. There is no mention of the attack on Iranian frigate IRIS Dena, India's guest during MILAN-2026, in what is effectively India's strategic backyard."