New Delhi: In a veiled swipe at Congress MP Shashi Tharoor after he penned an article on the Emergency, party leader Manickam Tagore on Thursday said when a colleague starts repeating BJP lines word for word, one begins to wonder whether "the bird is becoming a parrot".

Tharoor has said that the Emergency should not be remembered merely as a dark chapter in India's history, but that its lessons must be fully understood.

Without naming anyone, Tagore, who is a Congress MP from Virudhunagar in Tamil Nadu and party's whip in the Lok Sabha, said on X, "When a Colleague starts repeating BJP lines word for word, you begin to wonder — is the Bird becoming a parrot? Mimicry is cute in birds, not in politics." Tharoor and Tagore had also indulged in "bird talk" last month to convey their views.

The Tharoor-Congress rift had taken a turn towards what some termed a "war of birds" as Tagore had sought to establish the pecking order with an X message to his colleague last month.