Snubbed and silenced: India's Shashi Tharoor caught in the crossfire

“Anyone who considers serving the national interest as anti-party activity should have his head examined,” said a source close to Shashi Tharoor — four-time Congress Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram, and these days considered a Congress rebel without pause.

What got overshadowed in the Congress party’s latest kerfuffle was the Indian government’s foreign outreach that cut across party lines following Operation Sindoor. The Modi government picked seven MPs — four from the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and three from the opposition, including Tharoor — to articulate India’s stance against terrorism to the world.

The Congress, India’s oldest political party, threw a hissy fit when the Modi government ignored its own list of recommended names and instead picked Tharoor — a name the party had not included — to head one of the delegations.

You really have to wonder at the political smarts of a party that publicly snubs Tharoor, who heads the Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs and was a key minister in the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government. A former professional diplomat, Tharoor was previously the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and spent more than three decades in the rarefied world of high diplomacy. If there’s anyone in the Congress more qualified to represent India on the global stage, it’s a mystery to those outside the party’s palace coterie.

Instead, India was treated to the unedifying spectacle of Jairam Ramesh, head of the Congress communications team (such as it is), telling the Sunday Times of India:

“Congress mein hona aur Congress ka hona mein zameen aasmaan ka antar hai.” (There is a world of difference between being in the Congress and being of the Congress.)

Ramesh’s rather bizarre remark finally brought the long-whispered campaign against Tharoor out into the open. At an earlier press conference, when asked a seemingly innocuous question about Tharoor, Ramesh had angrily shoved the microphone away.

Tharoor, once an asset to the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress, has become an irritant to the Rahul Gandhi iteration of the party. He’s not self-effacing enough for the hyper-insecure clique around Rahul — especially K.C. Venugopal, currently chief courtier to the Gandhi durbar. Venugopal, widely considered the most incompetent General Secretary (Organisation) in the party’s history, has presided over the steady withering of its cadre base. Yet now, he harbours ambitions of being the party’s face in the upcoming Kerala elections.

Tharoor, too, is eyeing that role — hence the repeated targeting. Since he dared to throw his hat into the ring during what was essentially a Gandhi-managed Congress presidential election, he has been persona non grata. His articulate support for Operation Sindoor landed like a lead balloon among Gandhi loyalists.

“Tharoor’s views don’t represent the party,” is now a Ramesh refrain that Congress beat reporters can recite in their sleep — and that now provokes knowing chuckles at press briefings.

An increasingly impatient Tharoor is signalling that he’s had enough of the cold shoulder. Despite being a youth icon with his eloquence and intellect, the Congress has consistently denied him opportunities to speak in Parliament. A 24/7 workaholic and a best-selling author, Tharoor is given no party responsibilities, and his long-held desire to be the Congress face in Kerala has been repeatedly sidelined. Sources close to him tell me he has no interest in contesting another Lok Sabha election. They even quip — somewhat quixotically — that he now feels like what was once said about the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee: the right man in the wrong party.

According to those close to Tharoor, his views and ideology — that of a Nehruvian consensus-builder — haven’t changed at all. What has changed is the Congress party, which now appears out of sync with the national mood and virtually unelectable in its current avatar. Tharoor even wrote a book about why he is a Hindu and how that doesn’t conflict with secularism. The Congress, often accused by the BJP of being anti-Hindu, could have leveraged both the book and the author — but seems unable to grasp the basics of political messaging anymore.

Before the Congress finally blinked and issued a churlish late-night statement, Tharoor had already publicly accepted the government’s assignment — effectively daring his party to do its worst. His message was clear: You do you. I’ll do me.

“Shashi is all about only Shashi,” a senior leader said bitingly, accusing him of being more concerned about his public profile and on the lookout for his next job. That’s a rather petty take on a multifaceted leader even the BJP grudgingly respects.

The Congress had an opportunity to showcase national unity after the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 innocent tourists were killed. But in its zeal to police Tharoor, the party once again found a way to shoot itself in the foot.

The bleed of talented, popular leaders that began in 2014 remains unabated. From Himanta Biswa Sarma to Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jitin Prasada, the list is long. Sachin Pilot is now almost literally the last man standing. The Congress is out of funds, out of cadre, and — most worryingly — out of political ideas. It has no real strategy to take on the BJP or even regional parties. The INDIA opposition alliance is all but dead, and the lion’s share of the blame lies with the Congress — the only pan-India party in the group.

Truly, the Congress never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

As for Tharoor — a heads-up to my beloved readers of SWAT Analysis: expect a flurry of action before the Kerala elections. And while he may ultimately flourish only within the Congress, with a man like Tharoor, you can always expect the unexpected.