Tharoor’s manoeuvres keep Congress, friends & foes guessing

Walking into a conference room at the 24, Akbar Road office of the Congress for a meeting, on May 14, to streamline the party's stand on the post-Pahalgam political situation, Shashi Tharoor might not have expected some of his colleagues to treat him like an adversary.

Tharoor’s unquestionable support to the Modi government as against the qualified criticism by his party on the Pahalgam attack, Operation Sindoor and the India-Pakistan ceasefire, which was first announced by US President Donald Trump, had upset many of his fellow leaders.

“Have we called an all-party meeting?” one of them jokingly asked another as Tharoor entered the conference hall.

Many did not openly speak against the 69-year-old MP in the meeting but were united in their assessment that he had crossed the ‘Laxman Rekha’. However, one of the leaders — some say Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh — did not mince his words at the meeting.

Ramesh, who first met Tharoor around 50 years ago, told reporters soon after, “when Tharoor speaks, it does not reflect the views of the party”. Tharoor rejected suggestions that he got a tongue lashing in the presence of Rahul Gandhi and said that till the time he was in the meeting, none raised the issue.

“People seem to think that I have some knowledge, so they come and ask my views,” he said, adding that he spoke as an Indian and not as a spokesperson of the party or the government. Congress made its displeasure clear to Tharoor by not recommending his name to be part of the multi-party delegations to be sent by the Modi regime to various countries, but the government named him to lead one of the seven delegations.

Many of his friends and admirers were not in approval, even as the right wing hailed him. Veteran journalist N Ram called him the “principal spokesman of, and the leading apologist for, the BJP government”.

This is not the first time that the four-term Thiruvananthapuram MP, who entered politics after a 29-year stint at the United Nations and an unsuccessful attempt at becoming the UN Secretary General, has landed the grand old party in a soup.

Earlier this year, he wrote an article hailing the Left Front government in Kerala, much to the chagrin of the Congress which is hoping to unseat the CPM-led dispensation in the Assembly polls early next year.

He added a bit more ‘mirchi’, in a podcast interview, when he hinted at returning to “other avenues” like writing and speaking assignments, if the party does not have a role for him.

Earlier this year, Tharoor was effusive in his praise for Modi after the latter’s first meeting with Trump after his oath-taking, and also for being the leader who could hug both warring Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The right wing, however, has not always been kind to the writer-politician. He faced a barrage of abuses on social media over his involvement in the Indian Premier League (IPL), which also cost him his ministership, and the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.

In an election rally in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi in 2012, Modi had attacked Tharoor, calling Pushkar his “Rs 50 crore girlfriend”. Two years later, Modi invited him to be a part of his government’s ‘Swacch Bharat Abhiyan’; Tharoor joined it despite Congress’ reservations.

Soon after the 2014 Lok Sabha results, Tharoor had praised Modi and told his party that it would be “churlish” if it did not take note of Modi’s “inclusive and accommodative” nature and efforts to reinvent himself from a “hate figure into an avatar of modernity and progress”.

In October that year, he was removed as party’s spokesperson following a complaint from the Kerala leadership over his Modi praise.

If Tharoor is creating so much trouble, why not get rid of him? A senior leader reasoned: “He has huge appeal among the middle-class. You cannot ignore him. Then, there is too much democracy in Congress. Senior leaders can be independent republics.”

Tharoor and Congress’ Kerala leadership have had an uneasy relationship since his parachuting to the Thiruvananthapuram seat. Some had already sensed a threat in his entry in Kerala, as a suave leader could upset their ambitions and Tharoor did not hide his ambitions.

Hugely popular among youth and women, almost all Congress candidates in the state want Tharoor to campaign for them in elections. He knows it too and has subtly thrown his hat into the ring for the 2026 elections.

But, his supporters, including those who want the party to choose him as the chief minister face, are upset over his latest manoeuvres.

Tharoor, who was a Minister of State in the Manmohan Singh government, has been upset with the leadership over the way party affairs are handled post 2014.

He was part of the G-23 leaders who raised a rebellion and unsuccessfully contested against Mallikarjun Kharge without the support of ‘co-rebels’. Tharoor bagged the highest 1,072 votes for a loser in Congress history, sending a signal to the leadership.

While everyone believed that he would be sidelined, the leadership anticipated trouble and included him in the Congress Working Committee.

Even after his remarks at the recent CWC meeting in Ahmedabad that appeared to question Rahul, Tharoor was tasked with seconding the main resolution at the AICC Session. He repeated his warnings in public saying that harping too much on the past could drive away the youth.

Only in February, Tharoor had a meeting with Rahul over his demand for a defined role in the party, after he was replaced as the Professional Congress’ head. Senior leaders insist that an “impatient” Tharoor has been given opportunities.

Some argue he may be looking at options. Tharoor said in 2020: “I entered politics not as a careerist but to advance principles I have articulated for nearly four decades...I have never been an opportunist and won’t start now.”

He continues to say so.