India, June 25 -- Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday took a swipe at party MP Shashi Tharoor over his effusive praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the Congress believed in the "country first" but for some, it is "Modi first, country later".

Tharoor, after returning from a five-nation outreach mission for India's Operation Sindoor on Pakistan, had praised Modi in an op-ed article in a newspaper, calling him a "prime asset for India" due to his "energy, dynamism and willingness".

Asked about this at a press conference, Kharge said, "Shashi Tharoor's language is very good. That is why he has been kept in the Congress Working Committee. I said in Gulbarga that we spoke in one voice, that we stood together for the...