NEW DELHI, Dec 10: “Chanakya,” the chief advisor to the powerful king Chadragupta Maurya, whose organisational skills and useful advices had helped installing the Mauryan dynasty, is often used to refer to a “wise man,” but in the BJP’s reckoning “Chanakya” is an abusive term when it refers to a Congress leader and not when it is used for a BJP leader.
The ruling party’s double standard came to light during the debate in the Rajya Sabha on the 150 years of “Vande Mataram.” The fiery speech of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge during the discussion was punctuated by some lighter moments when the Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House responded to a prompt by party colleague and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh.
Kharge was targeting the government on the fall of the rupee when he referred to Union Home Minister Amit Shah as a key advisor of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “You would know, you are the main advisor and prime executive,” he told Shah. At this point, Ramesh, who was seated behind Kharge, prompted, “Chanakya”. The Home Minister is often referred to as Chanakya, the chief advisor to Mauryan ruler Chandragupta, for his organisational skills and political strategising.
Kharge repeated the “Chanakya” expression. He then gestured towards Ramesh and told the treasury benches, “A Chanakya is sitting here too.” Inside the House referring to Amit Shah and Jairam Ramesh as “Chanakya” did not evoke any protest and instead there was a peal of laughter from both sides of the political aisle. Ramesh and Congress MP Digvijaya Singh were seen smiling. Home Minister Shah and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju smiled too.
But outside the House, the response was different. The BJP used Kharge’s remark to claim that the Congress’s “internal fight” was out in the open. “Internal Fight out in the open! Mallikarjun Kharge TROLLS Jairam Ramesh,” party spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said, sharing a clip of the exchange. He, however, did not bother to explain how calling Jairam Ramesh a “Chanakya” indicated an “internal fight” in the Congress.
Ramesh is known for prompting from behind when Kharge speaks in the House. In July 2024, the then Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar had noticed this and had responded strongly. “Jairam Ramesh, you are so intelligent, gifted and talented, you should immediately come and take the (Leader of the Opposition) seat in place of Mr Kharge,” he had said. The Congress chief had hit back. “Don’t divide, still in your mind, the varna system is there. That’s why you are calling Ramesh very intelligent, and I am dull,” he had told Dhankhar, who had then regretted and said that he was misunderstood.
Meanwhile, the Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has avoided another flash point between him and the party by refusing to accept an award named after Veer Savarkar. Mr Tharoor was nominated for an award named after Veer Savarkar in what risked turning into another flashpoint, but the Thiruvananthapuram MP declined the honour, citing the lack of clarification about the nature of the award and the organization conferring it.
“I am not going,” he replied when asked about his participation, before clarifying his stand in an online post. “In the absence of clarifications about the nature of the award, the organization presenting it or any other contextual details, the question of my attending the event today or accepting the award does not arise,” Mr Tharoor said.
The Veer Savarkar International Impact Award 2025 is instituted by the NGO High Range Rural Development Society (HRDS), with Tharoor named as its inaugural recipient. The award was inaugurated by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at NDMC Convention Hall in New Delhi on Wednesday, honouring individuals and outfits that have worked for a change in national development, social reform, and humanitarian outreach.
Tharoor said he came to know about the award from media reports on Tuesday when he was in his home state Kerala. Asked by the local media, he said he was neither aware of the award nor had accepted it. Criticising organisers for not checking with him before making it public that he is a recipient, he asserted, “It was irresponsible on the part of the organisers to announce my name without my having agreed to receive it.”
“Despite that, today in Delhi, some media outlets continue to ask the same question,” his post read, even as his party colleagues believed no Congress member would accept an award in the name of Veer Savarkar. K Muraleedharan, a Congress veteran from his home state, said receiving the award would insult and embarrass the Congress. The BJP and the extended right wing consider Vinayak Damodar ‘Veer’ Savarkar as a revolutionary icon, but the Congress questions his contribution to the freedom struggle.
While Tharoor did not comment on Savarkar’s persona, his refusal to accept an honour named after him perhaps reflects the red line that he wouldn’t cross yet despite his differences with the workings of the Congress. Tharoor had recently been in the news over his remarks seen as critical of the Congress but remains a member of the grand old party and has also clearly indicated he has no plans to quit the party on his own.
