Analysis | Perunna speech and Nair posturing: Is Tharoor repeating Chennithala’s mistake?

It’s time for Shashi Tharoor, perhaps, to write a book titled ‘Why I’m a Nair’. The Congress leader owes an explanation to both his fans and rivals as to why he chose to flaunt his Nair identity in the most unfashionable manner at the recent Mannam Jayanthi celebrations that came as a booster for his political ambitions. 

Tharoor was accorded a hero’s reception at the event, a pride programme of the Nair Service Society (NSS), a prominent community organisation in Kerala. The event came as a win-win situation for both the NSS and Tharoor. The outfit's all-powerful general secretary G Sukumaran Nair used the opportunity to correct his earlier stand of treating Tharoor as an outcast even though he belongs to the prominent community while the organisation’s endorsement adds fuel to the diplomat-turned-politician’s all-out attempts to emerge as the most powerful leader of his party in the state -- in other words, his chief ministerial ambitions. 

Sukumaran Nair invited Tharoor to the event even as he maintains an uneasy relationship with other prominent Congress leaders from the community, mainly Opposition Leader V D Satheesan. Tharoor turned up at Perunna, the headquarters of the NSS, like a stereotypical Nair patriarch and spoke at length about Mannath Padmanabhan’s contributions to the community and society. It all went so well till then. It looked like a perfect script about a noble hero finally being duly recognised by his family in a grand climax. 

Then, apparently overwhelmed by the cheering of the Nair crowd, Tharoor went for an improvisation with a punch dialogue which, just like many of those in popular films, sounded chest-thumping and unwarranted. The headline-grabbing remarks he made portraying himself as a proud Nair and pointing fingers at his fellow party leaders could have ramifications he would not like to encounter in his ambitious political path. 

Nair vs Nair remark

“Mannath Padmanabhan used to say that it’s a tough task to organise the Nairs. He had 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. 

The remarks were immediately interpreted as a veiled criticism of the prominent Congress leaders from the Nair community who Tharoor believes have stood in the way of his rise in the party. Tharoor’s statement was cheered by the crowd, for the ordinary Nairs gathered at Perunna must have felt what they believed all their life validated by a person of Tharoor’s stature. Whether the intra-communal envy Tharoor mentioned is true or false could be studied by social scientists. However, one does not need lofty academic credentials to read into the political implications of the statement.

Tharoor’s Nair identity is no secret and there’s nothing to be apologetic about it as a politician’s caste is discussed more often than his or her calibre. But the way in which Tharoor flaunted his identity as a Nair let down by fellow community members sounded an aberration from the global citizen’s image he has successfully achieved over the years.

Tharoor, with this seemingly ill-thought-out remarks, gave the BJP leader and his opponent in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls Kummanam Rajasekharan the opportunity to say this: "We saw Tharoor, the global citizen, showing his true colours by making cheap caste comment in a venue in the name of the great Mannam. A global salute to Tharoor who revealed his real self that he wouldn't even hesitate to talk caste for selfish motives."

A person of Tharoor’s intellect could have easily avoided such criticism, which many share, had he been a bit more cautious about his choice of words. 

“His choice of words did not suit the qualities attributed to him. He belittled himself with the remarks. Caste is a dangerous sword. A politician should use it very carefully,” a senior Congress leader told Onmanorama. The former minister accused Tharoor of playing to the tune set by the NSS, or more specifically Sukumaran Nair. And that impression doesn’t augur well for Tharoor. If he has some doubt about it, then he should ask his party colleague Ramesh Chennithala about it.

Nair proximity and the Chennithala lesson

Ramesh Chennithala was one of the two most prominent leaders of the Congress in Kerala as the party was a two-faction system led by him and Oommen Chandy for a long until they failed to bring the party back to power in the 2021 state polls. Chennithala has had an illustrious political career that started at a very young age. He went to the 2021 polls as the leader of the opposition and thus a probable chief ministerial face even though the party leadership brought Chandy to the campaign front at the last minute. Chennithala’s political ambitions met with an unexpected huddle as the party lost the polls and he was replaced by Satheesan to lead the opposition in the Assembly.

It is often analysed that the curse of Chennithala’s career was that he got himself branded as a ‘man of the NSS’. Chennithala became the state home minister in 2014 January in the Cabinet led by then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Chennithala was made the home minister after Sukumaran Nair publicly demanded that the former be given a ‘key post’ in the government. Curiously, Chennithala became home minister replacing Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, also a Nair. Radhakrishnan belonged to Chandy’s A group (loyalists of A K Antony) while Chennithala headed the rival I group (once headed by K Karunakaran). 

Ever since Chennithala was awarded the ‘key post’ as the Congress surrendered to the pressure tactics of the Nair outfit, the prominent leader has not been able to unshackle the caste identity attached to him. He could not position himself as a leader of all as the 2014 key post baggage remained upon him. 

“It looks like Tharoor is repeating the strategic mistake Chennithala made. As soon as you allow yourself to be identified with a community, the other communities consolidate against you,” the senior Congress leader said. He also blamed Tharoor for raking up the issues the party had recently managed to settle after the former’s independent political tours across the state angered the state leaders.

Another prominent Congress leader said he was not surprised to hear Tharoor’s remarks against fellow leaders as he said he had seen it coming. “As soon as he started engaging in such events with political undertones, his true colour started coming out,” the leader said.

An assistant professor of political science in a college affiliated to Kerala University observed that Tharoor’s remarks at the NSS event were the result of his attempts to play dirty politics. “But he is an amateur in that game,” the academic added.

But another academician, also a keen follower of Tharoor’s writings and politics, differed. He said that comparing Tharoor with Chennithala was wrong. “While Chennithala reduced himself to the category of an NSS nominee, Tharoor has raised himself as everyone's choice. Getting Sukumaran Nair to publicly express regret over a past mistake is in itself a huge achievement,” he said. 

“Most people want to think that it is aimed at Satheesan. It could as well apply to Sukumaran Nair himself. Tharoor was surrounded by jealous people all his life, after all,” he said on Thiruvananthapuram MP's 'Nair vs Nair' comment.

Right from the invite to the grand event to his public apology to Tharoor for calling him ‘a Delhi Nair’ in 2009, Sukumaran Nair has been wooing the Thiruvananthapuram MP to his fold. He has now made it clear that Tharoor is the Congressman his organisation looks up to. He does not have any sympathy for Satheesan, who keeps community leaders at bay. Chennithala does not enjoy the support he used to once. It remains to be seen what the NSS general secretary’s new-found love and admiration for Tharoor have for the latter and his ambitions.