The new joke doing the rounds in political circles is that if Shashi Tharoor was allowed to talk to Amit Shah for a few minutes he could have made the home minister fall in love with P Chidambaram.
Given the nasty political tangle he has found himself in at the moment, such flattery masqueraded as a jest will provide Tharoor no special glee. His words, instead of casting a spell as is usual, has infuriated his party colleagues in Kerala.
Here is the moot question: Are Kerala leaders cutting the Thiruvananthapuram MP to size fearing his rise to a prominent position in the party or are they genuinely worried about the strategy proposed by a set of elite English-speaking Congressmen whom Modi had disparagingly called the Khan Market gang.
Tharoor had essentially said that the Congress would lose the credibility to take on the BJP if it fails to praise Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the right things he did.
Tharoor was seconding senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh's opinion that it was not right to always demonise Narendra Modi. In fact, Tharoor had taken such a position even in 2014. So it should not have surprised his colleagues in Kerala.
Tharoor bashing begins
Yet, Congress leaders in the state, who always had grudging respect for Tharoor, threw all restraint to the winds and pounced on Tharoor as if he had struck at the very foundation of the party.
KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran sounded shocked. “Tharoor had vehemently opposed the NDA government for five years. I don't know what has come over him in the past week,” Mullappally said. What the KPCC chief meant was that he suspected that Tharoor was gravitating towards the BJP.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala was dismissive of Tharoor's logic. “Modi's actions are unacceptable almost all the time. There is no need to praise Modi saying he has done something right after all the thousand mistakes that he had committed,” he said.
Boxer in the ring
Tharoor hit back saying no one needs to teach him how to fight the BJP. This aggression perhaps sprung from his conviction that he was the sole Congress leader from the state who has had his nose bloodied in the fight against the BJP during the past five years.
He has two cases already slapped against him by the BJP – one for the 'scorpion on Shivling' comment on Modi and the other for his 'Hindu Pakistan' remark. He was also the main speaker for the Congress in the Parliament when BJP introduced major legislations on Article 370, triple talaq, Right to Information and National Investigating Agency.
Face off
Tharoor's counter was met with Vadakara MP and senior Congress leader K Muraleedharan's brutal onslaught. “Those who want to praise Modi can do so by joining the BJP,” he said. Muraleedharan also sought to hint quite cheekily that Tharoor was under the impression that it was his personality that won him a big victory in Thiruvananthapuram in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. “If the candidate in Vadakara was given a huge mandate by the voters, it was not because they were enamoured by his handsome face. It was just a recognition of the policies of the party,” he said.
As if all this was not enough, Thrissur MP T N Prathapan shot off a missive to interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi against Tharoor.
Martyr of frankness
On one side, there is a feeling that Tharoor is being victimised for his open and constructive views on how to revive the party. Tharoor, for instance, had wanted the dissolution of the Congress Working Committee and called for elections to appoint the new team.
It is said that this had provoked CWC members like A K Antony and K C Venugopal. It is also alleged that it was the opposition of senior Congress leaders in Kerala that had forced Sonia Gandhi to pick Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the sole Congress MP from Bengal, over Tharoor as the party's Lok Sabha leader.
“It now seems that even Sonia Gandhi is beholden to the Kerala leaders after the Congress's stupendous victory in Kerala. Rahul's massive victory in Wayanad has perhaps made her all the more grateful,” a top Congress leader said.
Chief minister material
Even then, after Adhir Ranjan goofed up during the debate on Article 370, moves are reportedly on to replace him as Lok Sabha leader with either Tharoor or Manish Tewari. (During the debate in Parliament, Adhir Ranjan had said that Article 370 was not an internal matter to the mighty embarrassment of Sonia Gandhi and the party.)
Certain leaders argue that the “sudden gang up” against Tharoor was an attempt to snuff out any chance of Tharoor bagging the top slot in Lok Sabha. Such a post can also make him a probable chief ministerial choice if the UDF comes to power somewhere in the middle of 2021.
Agent provocateur
On the other side, even independent Congress leaders like V D Satheesan scoff at the suggestion that there was a conspiracy to isolate Tharoor. “Such an argument would have had credibility had the war of words been initiated by the Congress leaders who had spoken up. In this case, the provocation came from Tharoor,” he said.
Satheesan said it was also not true that Modi was being unnecessarily criticised as Tharoor seemed to suggest. “The criticism was always issue-based. It was against the BJP government's anti-democratic approach, against the way the GST was rolled out and demonetisation. Except in the case of the Rafale deal, Modi was not even attacked personally,” Satheesan said.
Weird timing
Most state-level leaders Onmanorama talked to also questioned the timing of Tharoor's comment. “This is a very critical period in Indian history. Democracy is being stifled in Jammu and Kashmir like never before and the economy is hurtling towards disaster. This is a time when we should be questioning our leaders more insistently and not less,” a senior Congress leader said on condition of anonymity.
North-South divide
Further, it is also argued that the party in Kerala could never, not even for a moment, go soft on Modi. “In North India perhaps things could be different. There could be some confusion on how to criticise Modi on issues like triple talaq and Article 370. But just see the mandate we have got in Kerala. It was resoundingly anti-Pinarayi and anti-Modi. Even if it is only in Kerala, people see Congress as the best bet against the BJP. It will be suicidal to betray that trust,” Satheesan said.
Tharoor had said his intention was “to win over those fair-minded voters who supported BJP in 2019”. Satheesan said this was exactly what the Congress did in Kerala during the 2019 elections.
This then perhaps necessitates the need for the Congress to have two strategies for Kerala and the rest of India. In other parts, attacking Modi on Article 370 or triple talaq or even the National Register on Citizens could be seen as Muslim appeasement and, therefore, anti-Hindu. Reason why a host of north Indian Congress leaders like Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Deepender Hooda, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Milind Deora and Kuldeep Bishnoi have praised the abrogation of Article 370.
There need not be such a fear in Kerala. Reason why, it is argued, leaders in the state consider Tharoor's wisdom as sacrilege.
Sunanda Pushkar angle
Certain Congress leaders in Kerala also insinuate that Tharoor's 'praise Modi' comment is an attempt to save his back in the Sunanda Pushkar murder case. The Tharoor camp calls this thinking the product of wicked minds.
“Had he wanted to get the government's help in the Sunanda case he should have curried favour with them when the investigation was on. Instead, he wrote a scathing and provocative book on Narendra Modi (The Pradoxical Prime Minister). Now the chargesheet has been filed and the court proceedings are on. He has no need for the government now,” a top Congress source said.
