The Congress Sunday distanced itself from senior party leader Shashi Tharoor’s remarks on veteran BJP leader L K Advani. The Thiruvananthapuram MP Saturday wished the saffron party leader on his 98th birthday, drawing criticism online from several sections, including Congress supporters.
Defending his decision to wish Advani, Tharoor said the BJP leader’s long years of service should not be discounted owing to a single episode (probably referring to the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition).
Earlier, Tharoor had taken to X to wish Advani, “Wishing the venerable Shri L.K. Advani a very happy 98th birthday! His unwavering commitment to public service, his modesty, decency, and his role in shaping the trajectory of modern India are indelible.”
To which a lawyer responded, saying, “Sorry Mr Tharoor, unleashing the ‘dragon seeds of hatred’ (to quote Kushwant Singh) in this country is NOT public service.”
Tharoor wrote in response, “Agreed, @sanjayuvacha, but reducing his long years of service to one episode, however significant, is also unfair.”
“The totality of Nehruji’s career cannot be judged by the China setback, nor Indira Gandhi’s by the Emergency alone. I believe we should extend the same courtesy to Advaniji,” the Congress leader added.
Following this online exchange, Pawan Khera, Congress’s media and publicity department head, said, “Like always, Dr Shashi Tharoor speaks for himself and the Indian National Congress outrightly dissociates itself from his most recent statement. That he continues to do so as a Congress MP and CWC member reflects the essential democratic and liberal spirit unique to INC.”
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The 69-year-old Kerala MP had left party leaders red-faced several times in the past. Recently, he wrote an article on dynastic politics in which he said that the Nehru-Gandhi family “cemented the idea that political leadership can be a birthright”.
Dynastic politics, he added, poses a “grave threat to Indian democracy” and it is time to trade “dynasty for meritocracy”.
Before that, in February, the four-time MP drew flak after he wrote a newspaper article highlighting the start-up boom in Kerala during Left rule and saying that “Kerala is beginning to stand out as a model of economic innovation and sustainable growth”.
In June, Tharoor also led a multi-party delegation to the US and some countries in South America to explain the government’s position on the conflict with Pakistan following Operation Sindoor. During the tour, his comment that India had breached the Line of Control for the first time during the surgical strikes in 2016 in response to the Uri terror attack did not go down well with the Congress.
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The same month, when Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala was asked about Tharoor’s remark that India would never allow third-party mediation in its bilateral issues with Pakistan, he said that when “Tharoor speaks, it is not the party’s opinion”.
