Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday slammed Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan over his visit to Russia amid Moscow launching attack on Ukraine, and cited the example of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who in 1979 as the then foreign minister had cut short his visit to China when Beijing attacked Vietnam.

“If @imrankhanPTI has any self-respect, he will do what Vajpayee Sahib did when China attacked Vietnam during his 1979 visit: he should cancel his trip immediately & go home. Otherwise he is complicit in the invasion,” Tharoor said.

Tharoor was referring to Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit to China when he was minister for external affairs in the Morarji Desai government. Vajpayee ended his visit to China a day early in protest against China’s invasion of Vietnam. The Vajpayee visit to China was a breakthrough in bilateral ties as it was the first by a senior political leader from New Delhi since the 1962 war.

Khan held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. The two countries are not just exploring options to deepen economic ties, but Russia is keen to sell arms to Pakistan – something it avoided in the past because of India’s opposition. 

Just as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was making an appeal in the Security Council to Russian President Vladimir Putin to “stop your troops from attacking Ukraine” and other Council members calling for de-escalation, restraint and diplomacy, the Russian leader announced the launch of a military operation in eastern Ukraine.

Reacting to the developments, Tharoor tweeted, “So Russia is conducting a ‘regime change’ operation. How long can India, which had consistently opposed such interventions, stay silent?”

“However much one appreciates Moscow’s legitimate security concerns, resort to war is impossible to accept or justify. We should demand they stop,” the former minister of state for external affairs said.

Tagging a quote of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in which he said “we are absolutely clear that we will not agree to any change in the status quo, any attempt to change the LAC unilaterally by one side”, Tharoor said in a tweet, “This should be our stand on Ukraine as well. Principles do not cease to be relevant depending on the identity of the invader.”