Will not accept ‘Veer Savarkar Award’, says Shashi Tharoor amid row

Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday categorically said that he would not accept an award named after VD Savarkar, nor attend a related event, even as a senior party colleague wanted the Congress MP not to accept any honour named after the ideologue who, he claimed, "bowed before the British."

Tharoor said he would not accept the "Veer Savarkar Award" and also would not attend the event where it would be presented in the absence of clarification about its nature or the organisation presenting it.

Tharoor, the MP from Thiruvananthapuram, said, “It was irresponsible on the part of the organisers to announce my name without my having agreed to receive it.”

Earlier in the day, Congress leader K Muraleedharan told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram that no party member, including Tharoor, should accept an award in the name of Veer Savarkar "as he had bowed before the British".

Muraleedharan said he did not believe that Tharoor would accept the award as doing so would insult and embarrass the Congress party.

Tharoor later told reporters in the national capital that he heard about the award on Tuesday and that he was not going for the ceremony.

"I heard about it yesterday only. I am not going," he said in response to a question on Wednesday on his participation in the award ceremony.

Subsequently, in a post on social media platform 'X', the Congress MP said, "In the absence of clarifications about the nature of the award, the organisation presenting it or any other contextual details, the question of my attending the event today or accepting the award does not arise."

He said he learned from media reports that he was named as a recipient of the award when he went to Kerala to vote in the local body polls on Tuesday.

He said he had clarified then that he was neither aware of, nor had accepted, such an award.

"Despite that, today in Delhi, some media outlets continue to ask the same question. Therefore, I am issuing this statement to clarify the matter unequivocally," Tharoor added.

Following Tharoor's statement, Aji Krishnan, the secretary of the Highrange Rural Development Society (HRDS) India which is presenting the award, told a TV channel that the Congress MP was informed about the matter well in advance.

He said that representatives of HRDS India and the chairman of the award jury had met Tharoor at his residence to invite him and the MP had asked for a list of the other recipients.

"We gave him the list. He has not yet informed us that he will not come for the event. Perhaps he is scared as the Congress has made it an issue," Krishnan claimed.

Kerala Law Minister P Rajeev said it was Tharoor’s decision whether to accept the award or not.

Tharoor was chosen as one of the recipients of the inaugural Veer Savarkar International Impact Award 2025, instituted by HRDS India.

On Tuesday, he had said that he heard about the award through the media and that he was not aware who was giving it.

"I am not aware of anything related to the award. Let me find out what it is," he had said.