Congress closes chapter on Tharoor's article praising Kerala's entrepreneurial growth

Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi: The national leadership of the Congress party on Tuesday stated that the controversy surrounding party leader Shashi Tharoor's article, which praised Kerala's entrepreneurial growth under the Left government, is a closed chapter.

AICC General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal said that the party had spoken to Tharoor on the matter, and he had informed them that if accurate data on the state's entrepreneurial growth were available, he would reconsider his stance.

"There is no need for any controversy over it. It is a closed chapter. That is the Congress' view," Venugopal told reporters in New Delhi in response to a query.

He added that the Congress party in Kerala holds a strong view on the claims made by the Left government.

Venugopal alleged that the Left government had manipulated data on growth and was engaging in a PR exercise.

The AICC general secretary's statement comes as Tharoor has been under attack from the rank and file of the Congress in Kerala for his article praising the state's entrepreneurial growth under the Left government.

On Monday, KPCC chief K Sudhakaran stated that he had spoken directly to the Thiruvananthapuram MP and given him "good advice." "Individuals can have their own opinions, but the party decides its official stance," Sudhakaran had said in Kasaragod.

On Sunday, Tharoor, a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) had claimed that his article in an English daily contained no political references and that his focus was solely on Kerala's entrepreneurial and innovation-driven growth, intending to showcase the state's development in that specific area.