Shashi Tharoor Tip Toes from Congress' Ambit

Operation Sindoor has been suspended but a side story has started about it. The delegations which have been sent abroad to present their case. The political tu-tu, main-main has started with them. In particular, the Congress party is very angry with both the government and Tharoor for making Congress leader Shashi Tharoor the leader of an important delegation. In 1994, P.V. Narasimha Rao sent a delegation led by Leader of the Opposition Atal Bihari Vajpayee to present India's case at the United Nations Human Rights Conference in Geneva to send a message that the whole country is united. This time it's not coordination. But this is very important because the world is treating us and Pakistan equally. The liberal class abroad, in governments, in the media, in think tanks, in institutions of higher learning, what was once on our side is now speaking a different language because we are now being considered illiberal democracies. On top of that, Donald Trump's strangely negative attitude is causing trouble.

As far as the delegation is concerned, the government had suggested three to four names to the Congress party. Minister Kiren Rijiju had talked to Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, but the Congress sent its four different names, if it wanted to give a message to the world that all parties are together in this delicate hour, then the government should have accepted the name of the Congress, but the government accepted only the name of Anand Sharma and Shashi Tharoor on its behalf. Salman Khurshid, Manish Tewari and Amar Singh were included. All these Congress leaders are experienced and it is the right choice but it would have been better if the party's permission was taken. The government made a mistake but the Congress should have remained silent at this time. She could have taken credit that she has experienced and talented people while the BJP lacks. After all, the leaders who have argued well abroad are all from the opposition. But while the delegation was on foreign soil, the Congress started firing on its own people. The Congress could have remained silent for a while. But Rahul Gandhi's Congress goes ahead fearlessly. There is no maturity in such an old party. This time, the resentment seems to be more about one name in particular, Shashi Tharoor.

Shashi Tharoor is the most well-known name in the Congress in the country, except for the Gandhi family. Whether there was any benefit in sending these delegations or not is a different matter, because no one has found any senior leader anywhere, but it has to be admitted that Shashi Tharoor put the country's side on Operation Sindoor better than any BJP spokesperson. In front of him, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar appears to be a strict school teacher. And that's Tharoor's problem, his personality. He is educated, maybe more educated. He has a special mastery over English, which remains a topic of discussion. His style is very nafi, he is charming, if it is seen that he has been elected MP four times, then he cannot be called a representative of the cocktail circle. He has a lot of ability to speak his mind. He has written many books. They are popular among young people. He is also called the Ladies Man, but it is not his fault if others find him attractive. His photographs surrounded by women are often published because the personality is attractive. After all, it's a matter of jeans.

But in today's politics, too much talent can also be a weakness because many people start thinking of you as a threat to themselves. It's a disease in every party. This is also the reason for Shashi Tharoor's distance with the Congress party. He is highly talented. His popularity is not because of his party. They have a different place in the country. His tussle with those in power over the Congress began when he contested for the post of chief against the high command representative Mallikarjun Kharge in October 2022. Kharge won with a good 7800 votes, but Shashi Tharoor got 1000 votes, the high command was alerted that this person has the power to challenge. He could not be sidelined, because he had to win the Lok Sabha election from Thiruvananthapuram, but Shashi Tharoor was not given a price equal to his level. He complains that Rahul Gandhi does not meet him. He's not alone in complaining about it. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had told that when he was in Congress, he went to meet Rahul Gandhi one day. Instead of talking to them, Rahul kept feeding biscuits to his dog. An angry Biswa Sarma left the Congress and joined the BJP and now the Congress has a nose in the North East. Is Shashi Tharoor also taking a turn there?

Shashi Tharoor's statement on foreign soil that during Operation Sindoor the Modi government crossed the Line of Control and the International Border 'which had never happened before' has been a matter of controversy. It was an unnecessary comment. There was no need to wrap up previous governments to give credit to the Modi government. It is also factually incorrect. It is true that the Modi government went where no previous government had gone, but it is wrong that the previous governments did not cross the Line of Control or the International Border. Retired Lt. General D.S. Hooda has made it clear that there have been strikes inside Pakistan at least six times in the past. Expert Ajay Sahni said, "Cross borders have happened before. There have been many times. Whenever there was an attack from that side, the army would respond by attacking the target. It just wasn't publicized." The military campaign should not be politicised. It is surprising that a sensible person like Tharoor was misled. Jairam Ramesh's remark, "There is a huge difference between being in the Congress and being in the Congress", showed what the party's leadership thought of him.

Does Shashi Tharoor want the party to expel him so that he is not accused of betrayal or ingratitude? It seems that Shashi Tharoor has burnt all his instalments with the Congress party. Supporting the Modi government's policy abroad and indirectly condemning previous governments, of which he himself has been a minister, is tantamount to crossing the Lakshman Rekha. After all, he is 69 years old and has no chance of getting anything from the Congress. So is he also going to be the next Jyotiraditya Scindia? Kerala Assembly elections are due next year. Shashi Tharoor would like to be the Chief Minister but there is no possibility that the Congress will make him the Chief Minister. There is no question of BJP coming to power there and Tharoor will not go with the Left. That is, their options are also limited, but there is also a problem for the Congress. They want to come to power in Kerala but if Shashi Tharoor leaves, it will be a big setback. There will also be an impression that the Congress cannot handle talented people as they can challenge Rahul Gandhi.

Shashi Tharoor has a long history of anti-BJP and anti-RSS. He is a staunch liberal and has strongly condemned the BJP and the RSS, if independent thinking is not allowed in the Congress, then it is even less in the BJP, if the Congress could not tolerate his personality, then the BJP is even less likely to tolerate it. Interestingly, in his book The Paradoxical Prime Minister, he writes, "The shameful exploitation of the 2016 surgical strike... Which the Congress has never done, while many such strikes have been done before". This is what Tharoor is saying now that such a strike did not happen earlier. Shashi Tharoor's opposition to the BJP has been not only political but also ideological and ideological one. In his book The YIMA Hindu, he explains why he is opposed to Hindutva. He writes, "What Swami Vivekananda saw as the power of Hinduism, its extraordinary diversity... This is what the ideologues of the RSS consider to be a weakness... Hindutva's goal is to create social and cultural differences for political expediency... Therefore, Hindutva is incompatible with my tenets of Hinduism... My Hinduism is in harmony with the Nehruvian concept of Indianness... The narrow ideology of Hindutva is a mockery of the Hindu religion that it really is." He ends the chapter titled Hinduism and the Politics of Hindutva with the line, "The Sangh is not the spokesperson of Hindus like me". I don't see anyone who has such views, who is a supporter of 'Nehruvian Indianness', going there. But this is politics and it is said that nothing is impossible here.