Narrow political thoughts: Shashi Tharoor shrugs off criticism over PM praise
Amid a row over his remarks praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government in Kerala, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said he never thought of himself as a politician and that he had “narrow political thoughts”.
His remarks assume significance as he earlier praised the Kerala government’s policies and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for meeting US President Donald Trump in the US, gestures which have not gone well with the Congress.
Speaking in a Malayalam podcast interview, Tharoor called on the Congress to expand its base in Kerala to attract new voters and highlighted the absence of a leader in the party’s state unit.
He warned that if Congress did not expand its appeal, it would be sitting again in the opposition for the third consecutive time in Kerala, where Assembly polls are scheduled for next year.
During the podcast interview, Tharoor described himself as an accessible leader and said if the Congress did not require his services, he had “options”. However, he refuted rumours of switching parties, saying he did not believe so even if there was a difference in opinions.
The 67-year-old leader claimed that other Congress leaders backed him for his views that there was an absence of a leader in the party’s Kerala unit. He cited opinion polls conducted by independent organisations that showed him being ahead of others in leadership stakes in the state.
On Saturday, Tharoor shared a quote from English poet Thomas Gray’s poem ‘Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College’ on X, which read, “Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise.” He captioned the post as, “Thought of the day.”
THAROOR MEETS RAHUL GANDHI IN DELHI
On February 18, Tharoor met Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and said he had a “very good conversation” with him in Delhi. He said he could convey certain key issues to Rahul Gandhi during the half-an-hour conversation.
To repeated questions, the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha member said he couldn’t divulge further details of the one-to-one closed-door meeting. There was no discussion about the coming elections or the role of leaders in Kerala, he said.
Rahul Gandhi had invited Tharoor for a meeting after a controversy erupted over his article praising LDF government in Kerala for promoting entrepreneurship, which was outrightly rejected by the state Congress and other opposition leaders in the state.
Asked about the continuing criticism from Congress leaders in Kerala about his article, Tharoor said he was at a loss to understand the reason for the controversy.
Answering a query if he had complained about sidelining him in the party at the state and national levels, Tharoor said, “I have never made any complaint against anyone.”
He said the controversy over his article praising the Left Front government in Kerala for investment-friendly policies and startup programmes had “done some good” as it had opened a scope for discussion on the issue.
“For the last 16 years, I have been talking about Kerala youth migrating to other countries due to unemployment and the need for startups and promotion of entrepreneurship in the state,” he said.
Tharoor also clarified that his praise for PM Modi’s recent meeting with Trump was made in India’s broader interest, and asserted that “we cannot always speak only in terms of party interest”.
KERALA CONGRESS REACTS TO THAROOR’S PODCAST INTERVIEW
Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said he did not want to react to Tharoor’s remarks and said that the latter might have given the podcast interview before he met Rahul Gandhi.
“What I understand is that he gave the interview before meeting Rahul Gandhi. I don’t want to react to this because of that. We don’t want to make any controversy out of it,” he said.
“When I was the Kerala Congress President, I had asked him to join the party when he was leaving the UN I had also suggested him to contest in Palakkad. He had said that in the interview which is right,” he added.
(with inputs from PTI)
