Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday (March 18) said he has “egg on face” for criticising India’s position amid Russia-Ukraine conflict. He said India is in a position where it can make a difference to lasting peace.

“I am still wiping the egg off my face because I was the one person in the parliamentary debate who had criticised the Indian position in February 2022 on the grounds of violation of international charters and principles,” Tharoor said during an interactive session at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi.

Tharoor criticised India’s position when Russia invaded Ukraine, calling for a condemnation of the aggression. But the stance has clearly changed in three years and was heard praising policies of the Narendra Modi government.

“Well, 3 years later, it does look like I am the one with egg on my face because clearly, the policy has meant that India has a Prime Minister who can hug both the President of Ukraine and the President of Moscow two weeks apart and we are accepted in both places. Therefore, India is in a position where it can make a difference to lasting peace if it was so required in ways that very few countries would be able to,” the former external affairs minister said.

The Thiruvananthapuram MP said his criticism was based on the “well-known grounds that there was a violation of the UN charter, there had been a violation of the principle of inviolability of borders, of the sovereignty of a member state namely Ukraine, and we had always stood for the inadmissibility of the use of force to settle international disputes”.

He added India benefits due to a number of factors including its distance from Europe.

With the caveat that he cannot speak on behalf of the government as he was in the opposition, Mr Tharoor also said if it were necessary and if there was an agreed peace between Russia and Ukraine, there would be some willingness on the Indian side to consider sending peacekeepers.

The three-day Raisina Dialogue – India’s flagship conference on geopolitics and geo-economics, was thrown open by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 17.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha are among those attending the 10th edition of the conclave. r is being hosted by the leading think-tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).