New Delhi, May 29 (Reporter) The slugfest between Congress leader Shashi Tharoor and his party intensified on Thursday with the Congress describing him as "super spokesman of the BJP’’and saying that he (Tharoor) had ‘Modi-fied’’ while Tharoor took a dig at his critics and said "I have better things to do.’’ The BJP came to Tharoor's rescue hitting out at the Congress for attacking a "nationalist" leader within its ranks. "I don’t really have time for this…critics and trolls are welcome to distort my views and words as they see fit. I genuinely have better things to do. Goodnight,’’ Tharoor tweeted before he left Panama for Colombia to educate them about India’s policy of zero tolerance against terrorism. Tharoor earlier visited the US and Panama. Tharoor is under attack from leaders within his own party for projecting India’s case as part of global outreach on Operation Sindoor. "Zealots were fulminating about my supposed ignorance of Indian valour across the LoC’’ in the past. He said he was clearly and explicitly speaking only about reprisals for terrorist attacks and not about previous wars. He said his remarks were preceded by a reference to the several attacks that had taken place in recent years alone during which previous Indian responses were both restrained and constrained by "our responsible respect for the LoC and the IB’’. Congress leader Udit Raj had yesterday criticised Tharoor calling him "super spokesperson of the BJP.’’ His party colleagues Pawan Khera and Jairam Ramesh joined the offensive against Tharoor and retweeted Udit Raj’s comment. Udit Raj had tweeted over Tharoor’s reported statement in Panama that India breached the Line of Control (LoC) for the first time during the 2016 surgical strike on a terror base. Pawan Khera while commenting on Tharoor’s post quoted a passage from Tharoor’s book 'The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi and His India' and said that in the book Tharoor had accused the Narendra Modi government of "repeatedly using the Army in its political propaganda". "The shameless exploitation of the 2016 surgical strikes along the Line of Control with Pakistan, and of a military raid in hot pursuit of rebels in Myanmar as party election tool -- something the Congress had never done despite having authorized several such strikes earlier ---marked particularly disgraceful dilution of the principle that national Security issues require both discretion and non-partisanship," Pawan Khera quoted from the book. Pawan Khera also quoted a 2016 statement by External Affairs Minisrter S Jaishankar to the Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs and said Dr Jaishankar had then said “Professionally done, target-specific, limited-calibre counter-terrorist operations have been carried out across the LoC in the past too, but this is for the first time that the government has made it public." The BJP came to Tharoor’s defence and slammed the Congress for attacking a "nationalist" leader within its ranks. BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla alleged the Congress has deployed Udit Raj to attack Tharoor at the behest of Rahul Gandhi at a time when a multi-party Indian delegation, led by the Congress MP, is abroad to expose Pakistan at the international forum. Union minister Kiren Rijiju had on Wednesday condemned the Congress criticism of Tharoor and asked with whom is Congress’ hand. “Is it forbidden in Congress to speak for the country?’’ he asked. "What does the Congress party want and how much they really care for the country? Should the Indian MPs go to foreign nation and speak against India and its Prime Minister ? There’s limit to political desperation,’’ said Kiren Rijiju...////...