Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 29: After skipping several key party meetings on grounds of his non-availability due to prior engagements, the senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, whose relationship with the Congress is said to be on thin ice, had about two-hour long meeting with the Party president Mallikarjun Kharge and the former president Rahul Gandhi at Mr Kharge’s office in Parliament building on Thursday and later claimed that they all were “on the same page.”
“We had a very good, constructive, positive discussion. All is good, and we are moving together on the same page…” Tharoor told reporters after the meet.
Asked if he was upset or angry with the party over being not made the chief ministerial candidate in Kerala, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not looking for any new job and added that he already was an MP and has the trust of his voters of Thiruvananthapuram. He added he has always campaigned for the party whenever asked to do so.
Sources in the Congress said during the meeting, Gandhi told Tharoor he was very much needed for the party, and assured him that he would be taken into confidence on all key decisions of the Congress in Kerala. “Rahul Gandhi did most of the talking in the meeting. He insisted that the party needs Tharoor and that he should campaign for the (Congress-led) UDF in Kerala for the assembly election. He has assured him that Tharoor will be kept in the loop for all the major party decisions in Kerala. Rahul ji told him that the Congress has to work together and win Kerala,” said a source.
“Issues are sorted out,” a source close to Tharoor said. According to sources, Tharoor spoke in detail about issues he has been facing in the party. He specifically mentioned the “insult” he felt at the recent grand mahapanchayat in Kochi, which was inaugurated by Gandhi last week, it is learnt. Gandhi took the names of several party leaders who were on the dais while beginning his speech, but skipped Tharoor’s.
It was learnt that Tharoor had informed Deepa Dasmunsi, the AICC in charge of Kerala and Congress general secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal, about his displeasure. “Gandhi asked him to forget what happened so far… He said it is important for the Congress to win Kerala, and everyone should work together. Tharoor is important for the party, and the party leadership is conscious of his contributions,” said a source, adding that it was Venugopal who facilitated Thursday’s meeting to sort out the issues.
Mr Tharoor’s relations with the party leadership had been strained after a series of comments he made which were viewed as praising the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and who has had to swat rumours of a shock switch to the BJP. The meeting also followed Tharoor skipping a number of top-level Congress meets, including those in which strategy was discussed for the election this year in his home state of Kerala.
Sources said Mr Tharoor sought time to meet with Kharge and Gandhi to express his views and concerns, and that party would try to address those grievances before the election. Tharoor’s ties with the Congress seemed to deteriorate sharply after the Pahalgam terror attack in April last year. The four-time Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram spoke glowingly of the Prime Minister’s handling of the crisis, inviting sharp retorts from Congress leaders, many of whom made jibes about Tharoor angling for an invitation to join the ruling BJP.
The relationship took an apparent turn for the worse after the BJP invited Tharoor – and he accepted the invitation – to lead a cross-party delegations to brief friendly countries about the “Operation Sindoor,” India’s response to terror attack. No other Congress leader was extended an invitation.
And ties seemed to sour further over the next few months, including two instances in November. The first when Tharoor attended a private event at which the Prime Minister was speaking and then posted on X, “… the address served as an economic outlook and a cultural call to action, urging the nation to be restless for progress…” The Congress’ Supriya Shrinate and Sandeep Dikshit hit back, rubbishing the speech and questioning Tharoor’s comments.
“Even a neutral post by me on a speech by the PM has been attacked as praising him. But I didn’t say a single word of praise,” a befuddled Tharoor responded, “I just described the speech…”
The second instance in November was an article titled ‘Indian Politics Are a Family Business’ – a critique of family-led parties like the Congress – which did not go down well with the party. On that occasion the BJP pounced with sneers at the Congress and the ‘first family’, a jab at the Gandhi clan that remains hugely influential in the party’s daily affairs, despite not being its boss.
Tharoor has always maintained his comments reflect only the desire to better serve India. In June last year he said, “It (praise for the Prime Minister) is not a sign of my leaping to join his party… as some people have, unfortunately, been implying. It is a statement of national unity…”
In reality, the rift between MP and party has been growing steadily since mid-2022, when he was part of a group of Congress leaders that wrote to then-boss Sonia Gandhi asking for a change in leadership after a series of election defeats, starting with a drubbing in the 2019 federal poll.
That group – G-23 – eventually fizzled out, though not forcing an election for the Congress President post. Tharoor contested that election but lost to Gandhi loyalist Mallikarjun Kharge.
