New Delhi, May 29 -- Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor on Thursday, hit back at his critics, calling them "zealots" and "trolls" and clarified that his remark-"for the first time, India breached the Line of Control to conduct a surgical strike"-was said in the context of terror attacks and not about previous wars.

He was responding on X to criticism of his comment from Congress leaders about his comments that India conducted its first surgical strike in response to a terror attack in 2016.

But while a senior Congress leader sought to play down the entire episode, others doubled down on their criticism of Tharoor, even as the Bharatiya Janata Party backed the comments.

If India's multi-party outreach to the world to reiterate the message...