Shashi Tharoor Serves Notice to Congress: “If You Don’t Need Me, I have Other Things to Do”
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 24: Facing strong criticism from within the party, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor is learnt to have served a warning to the Congress leadership, if the party did not want his services, he has other things to do.
The diplomat-turned-MP has sent the message to the party high command amid an ongoing row over his praises for the rival Left government in Kerala. He also flagged the absence of a Congress leader in Kerala on the proposed launching of a Malayalam-language podcast by a media house on Wednesday, a teaser of which is already out.
Mr Tharoor, who has been elected four times from his home state, has upset his party by praising the CPM’s policies in Kerala and the state’s growth. His praises for Prime Minister Narendra Modi over meeting with US President Donald Trump earlier this month had also drawn criticism.
Defending his remarks, he said on the podcast that the people have supported his right to express himself over the state’s development. “If the party wants me then I will be there for the party. If not, I have my own things to do. You should not think that I don’t have any option to spend time. I have options. I have my books, speeches, invitations from across the world for talks,” he said.
The 2024 national elections saw a Congress resurgence, but the same did not reflect in the state elections that followed. Mr Tharoor said the Congress needed to expand their appeal in Kerala, or else they would sit in the opposition for the third straight time.
The Congress cannot win elections with the support of only its committed support base, he asserted. “At the national level, the Congress vote was around 19%. Would we be fine with our own vote base? Only if we get 26-27% additional, we can come to power. We need those who have not backed us in the last two elections,” he added.
He said he even got the votes of those opposing the Congress due to the way he expressed himself. “I came back to this country to serve it. I was doing well in the US and earning a lot of money,” he said. Mr Tharoor, a prominent Congress face in Kerala, sparked a buzz of rift after he praised the LDF government’s handling of the Kerala economy in a newspaper article. The Left welcomed his remarks, but it drew fire from his own camp.
He clarified last week he was merely highlighting the state’s progress in the start-up sector, but a regional party mouthpiece slammed him for representing a ‘distorted’ political practice. In a strongly worded editorial, the mouthpiece said that the LDF had turned Kerala into a “graveyard” and called it “suicidal” to weaken the party from within.
He also drew criticism after praising PM Modi’s meeting with Trump but defended himself saying that he spoke with India’s interest in mind. Politicians cannot always speak only in terms of party interest, he had said.
