JOIN USWhy is Congress leadership wary of Shashi Tharoor?
When Congress leader Shashi Tharoor threw his hat into the party presidential ring late last year, he was all too aware that it was an election he could never win. Not without the backing of the Gandhis.
It was still a calculated risk; part of the calculation being that the tag of a presidential contender could put him a notch above other Congress leaders. However, this was not to be.
Ever since that fateful election, Tharoor appears to be relegated to the sidelines by the party high command. He is now seen as the man who marched out of tune, and worse — as a man with ambition. Under normal circumstances, ambition is an asset, but not in Congress when Rahul Gandhi, widely believed to be the actual power centre in the party, looks upon power as poison. Also not only did Tharoor contest against the establishment, but he also notched up a very decent score for a perceived ‘lightweight’. All these are not qualities that gel with the Congress leadership matrix.
Tharoor’s isolation was evident when the newly-elected Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge dissolved the CWC and constituted a steering committee in its place. Tharoor was not included in the latter. He was also not invited to campaign for the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh polls that followed. In November, the Kerala Youth Congress withdrew an invite for an event where Tharoor was supposed to speak.
While one can question Tharoor’s abilities as a mass campaigner in the Hindi heartland (though he did give a couple of interviews in Hindi during his presidential campaign to showcase his fluency in the language), there is no denying his connect with the youth and the urban middle class, as well as his ability to own the headlines.
While at the Jaipur Literature Festival, he was asked to comment on the Ashok Gehlot-Sachin Pilot rift. Despite the fact he holds no party posts, his comments got media coverage. The Congress may not want him to campaign for the party, but the media does seek him for interviews, and there is no book launch that is complete without Tharoor being there. This is not to be slighted for in today's political discourse book launches are the new townhalls.
As a former UN diplomat, Tharoor knows how to wrap his punches in well-crafted gloves. Take the example of Article 370. Tharoor’s stated position has been that it was never meant to be permanent; but he questioned the manner in which it was abrogated. Contrast this with Gandhi’s knee-jerk reaction where he opposed the move in favour of restoring the Article. This was not the popular position with most Opposition allies supporting the government. Gandhi could have taken a page from Tharoor’s book and nuanced his opposition by focusing on the ‘unconstitutional process’.
Tharoor is a good voice to field against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on debates on Hinduism and nationalism, two bugbears of the Modi era.
Of late, he has turned his focus on Kerala politics amidst reports that he’s planning to contest the 2026 state polls. That has not gone down well with the powerful Kerala faction that dominates Congress’ politics at the national level. Not only is Gandhi an MP from the state, so is his trusted General Secretary KC Venugopal. It is unlikely that Venugopal would want Tharoor looming large in his backyard.
Others resent Tharoor’s lateral entry into the party, and as a G23 member told this author, “Tharoor didn’t consult any of us before making his bid. He is not a team player”. Let alone the establishment camp, his presidential bid did not get much support among the G23 (Tharoor was a signatory to the letter). If not being one who has risen the ranks of the party a problem, how will one explain the key party posts that leaders such as Madhusudan Mistry and Mohan Prakash hold? In fact, much of the leaders in Gandhi’s inner circle are ‘outsiders’. Thus, arguing that Tharoor lacks experience or hasn’t come up the ranks doesn’t wash.
What then could be the matter?
(Priya Sahgal is Senior Executive Editor, News X, and an author. The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.)