However, after hostile reactions from the Indian media and opposition, he retracted his statement on Sunday and explained that he did not mean that the Kingdom should be a mediator between the two countries. His initial statement had been seen as a major policy shift from India's 60-year-old stand that issues between India and Pakistan should be dealt with bilaterally.

Shortly after arriving in Riyadh, Tharoor, who is accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on a three-day official visit to Saudi Arabia, said: "We feel that Saudi Arabia has a long and close relationship with Pakistan but that makes Saudi Arabia even a more valuable interlocutor for us." He was responding to a question from a reporter whether India would seek Saudi help to encourage Pakistan to address India's concerns over terrorism, which Delhi claims emanate from Pakistani territory.

Within hours of making the remarks Tharoor was backtracking. "There's no chance of my saying Saudi Arabia should be a mediator. Never said that or anything like it," he said.

Tharoor has a reputation of embarrassing his government through controversial statements, which he later retracts. Previously, he invited controversy by making statements on social networking site Twitter about the government's austerity measures and immigration policy.

On another occasion, he landed himself in trouble for dubbing economy class air travel as "cattle class," a remark strongly disapproved by the Congress party and the government.

Although Tharoor did not mention Kashmir, many observers felt that he was talking about the Kingdom using its good offices to mediate on the contentious issue that is at the heart of the Indo-Pakistani dispute.

In 1997 then British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook offered to "mediate" in Kashmir. It overshadowed Queen Elizabeth's trip to India that year for the 50th anniversary of India’s independence. Delhi was furious at what it saw as gross interference in its internal affairs.

In 2002, Cook's successor Jack Straw met a similar hostile reaction when he spoke about the dangers of the Kashmir dispute between the nuclear neighbors. Again, it conflicted with the Indian view that Kashmir is not an "international dispute" but a strictly bilateral one.

India's former Foreign Secretary Shahshank called Tharoor’s statement uncalled for, immature and far from diplomacy.