Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.
Credit: PTI
New Delhi: On a day he spoke about his presence at a lecture being delivered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi “despite battling a bad cold and cough”, senior MP and Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday skipped a meeting called by the party leadership to review the contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in 12 states.
A meeting of Congress leaders, including CWC members, from 12 states where SIR is underway, were invited to the meeting with CWC members like P Chidambaram and Digvijaya Singh attending the deliberations to review the exercise and decide on a plan to take forward its protests on ‘vote chori’.
Tharoor did not attend the Congress meet even as he posted on ‘X’ that he attended a function where Modi delivered the Ramnath Goenka Lecture on Monday evening despite having a “bad cold and cough”.
Summing up the lecture, Tharoor said Modi spoke of India's “constructive impatience” for development and strongly pushed for a post-colonial mindset, as he emphasise that India is no longer just an ‘emerging market’ but an ‘emerging model’ for the world, noting its economic resilience.
“PM Modi said he’d been accused of being in ‘election mode’ all the time, but he was really in ‘emotional mode’ to redress the problems of the people. A significant part of the speech was dedicated to overturning Macaulay's 200-year legacy of 'slave mentality'. PM Modi appealed for a 10-year national mission to restore pride in India’s heritage, languages, and knowledge systems. I wish he had also acknowledged how Ramnath Goenka had used English to raise a voice for Indian nationalism!”he said.
“On the whole, the PM’s address served as both an economic outlook and a cultural call to action, urging the nation to be restless for progress. Glad to have been in the audience despite battling a bad cold and cough!” Tharoor added.
Only this month, he had put the Congress on the firing line by questioning 'dynasty politics' besides defending LK Advani’s legacy objecting to reducing his “long years of service to one episode” of leading the contentious 'Rath Yatra' while drawing parallel to Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.
Congress was quick to distance itself from Tharoor over his remarks saying, “like always, Shashi Tharoor speaks for himself” and the Congress “outrightly dissociates” itself from his statement on Advani.
The Congress has not taken any disciplinary action against him, though his remarks have been triggering controversies, so far. It is unlikely to precipitate a crisis, as Kerala, from where he is an MP and a popular figure, is in the midst of local body poll campaign and heading to Assembly elections next year.
Tharoor believes he should be made the party’s Chief Ministerial face but the Congress has not been enthusiastic about the idea. His remarks that are seen as cosying up to the BJP is seen in the party circles as an attempt to embarrass the Congress ahead of the elections.