Kottayam: Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor flaunted his Nair identity at a community event, which has assumed a lot of political significance in the wake of his perceived attempts to position himself in a key role in his party. 

Tharoor inaugurated the public meet as part of the 146th birth anniversary of Mannathu Padmanabhan, the founder of the Nair Service Society (NSS) of Kerala at Changanassery, the headquarters of the prominent community organisation.

Tharoor grabbed the opportunity to shoot a veiled criticism at his party colleagues even as the NSS endorsed him as ‘the most apt person’ to grace the occasion, putting into oblivion its bitter relationship with him in the past.

“Mannam (Mannath Padmanabhan) used to say that it’s a tough task to organise the Nairs. He has said it’s difficult for one Nair to accept another member of the community. He said it a century ago. But even now, sometimes, I find it’s true in politics,” Tharoor told the gathering of NSS members.

His statement is seen as a veiled criticism of some prominent leaders of his party from the community, including Leader of the Opposition V D Satheesan and AICC general secretary K C Venugopal. 

Ramesh Chennithala, another prominent Congress leader from the Nair community who used to be close with the NSS, had openly campaigned in favour of Tharoor’s opponent Mallikarjun Kharge in the party’s presidential election.

Sukumaran Nair corrects himself

The Mannam Jayanthi celebration also witnessed Sukumaran Nair, the all-powerful general secretary of the NSS, correcting himself about his previous opinion on Tharoor. 

Nair had rather provokingly called Tharoor a ‘Delhi Nair’ when the latter contested his first Lok Sabha election from Thiruvananthapuram in 2009. 

Nair’s argument was that Tharoor could not be counted as a Nair candidate as he was airdropped by the party central leadership from Delhi.

 

“I regret calling him a Delhi Nair when he came to contest the Lok Sabha polls in 2009. He is not a Delhi Nair. He is a son of Kerala and a global citizen. I don’t hesitate to say that we could not have had a better person to inaugurate this event,” the NSS supremo said.

The NSS invited Tharoor to its prestigious event at a time when he is trying to gain the support of different community and political outfits in an apparent bid to position himself as a potential chief ministerial face of the party in the state. 

In the past few months, he has attended a slew of events across the state and met prominent leaders of different communities, much to the chagrin of his party leaders.

This is the first time the NSS has invited a prominent Congress leader to inaugurate the Mannam Jayanti event after 2013, when A K Antony was its chief guest.