Is Congress listening to Shashi Tharoor’s inconvenient truth?

The Congress having tasted defeats in successive Assembly elections in Kerala, Shashi Tharoor is making a point not only to Kerala’s Congress leaders but also to the party’s national leadership

Recent statements by Congress leader Sashi Tharoor on his stand on the development agenda as a politician made national headlines.  His remarks exposed an Achilles’ heel for the Congress in Kerala yet again. 

The remarks were made just before the Invest Kerala Global Summit held in Kochi on February 21 and 22. The timing was perfect for Tharoor to drive the message home. The ruling coalition of Kerala praised Tharoor as if it had appointed Tharoor as their global ambassador. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took a guarded approach, given the political opportunism and the value of the investment any political dispensation can have in a stateman like Tharoor at any point in time. Some young leaders openly supported Tharoor, whereas social media was abuzz with interpretations of their salvage and pride. 

In 2016, when the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government assumed office, many thought this was a golden opportunity for the state to boost economic development under Vijayan’s strong and decisive leadership.  While the chief minister was hailed for his leadership and ability to handle difficult situations like in the aftermath of natural disasters, Kerala’s voters were uncharitable towards his coalition when more time and investment were channelled into religious and appeasement politics. This led to the LDF’s debacle in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Though the Congress was hoping to make a comeback in the 2021 Assembly polls as Kerala usually alternates between the LDF and the Congress-led UDF, the voters reposed their faith in the ruling coalition as more local and state issues reflected in the voting pattern.

For the first time in 50 years, Kerala voted for an incumbent government back to power. The voters rated the incumbent chief minister higher than the then-opposition party leader.

Three years since then, Kerala has undergone tremendous fiscal challenges. The frenzy among the students and parents to study abroad became the talking point across Kerala. The unrest and growing crime rates have unsettled the minds of the average Keralite. Again, the whole investment into minority and religious politics showed the door for LDF in the 2024 Parliament elections as if it had not learnt from their past experiences.

The tussle between the Kerala government and the Union government has limited traction to compensate for the aspirations of a new middle class emerging in Kerala. They need better jobs, better salaries, and a favourable ecosystem catering to their children's aspirations and security. It is in this context that Tharoor’s remarks were contextualised and analysed. 

The ruling LDF government is yet again trying to recover lost ground by wooing this new middle class of voters. It has announced its intent to open the higher education sector to private universities. At the same time, Keralites are aware of the geopolitical headwinds that may hamper their prospects of migration in the near future. Who is better than Tharoor is mindful of these developments?

Kerala’s politics has historically been entrenched in welfarism, socialism, and secularism. With remittances from the Gulf, a middle class emerged in the early 2000s, and now another one has emerged thanks to the media and access to global information complimented by the development narrative set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

These changes mean that political parties cannot continue winning the trust of voters by their old tactics of street fights and entrenched political ideologies. While the ruling coalition in Kerala is attempting a makeover by opening the doors for investors, the Congress is battling an ideological crisis and its position in the new socio-economic and political context.

Tharoor knows that this crisis is also grappled by the Congress at the national level. Having tasted defeats in successive Assembly elections, Tharoor is making a point not only to Kerala’s Congress leaders but to also the party’s national leadership. Clearly, there needs to be a reimagination and rejig among the political parties in the Opposition space to return to winning ways.

(D Dhanuraj is chairman, Centre for Public Policy Research, Kochi.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.