Tharoor praises Advani, further riles Cong

For many months now, Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor has been riling the parent party, the Congress, with his sympathetic, often laudatory, views on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP-led NDA’s foreign policy.

But on Saturday, he strayed too far from the Congress line.

The occasion was BJP veteran and former deputy prime minister LK Advani’s 98th birthday. Taking to X, the former UN Under-Secretary-General showered generous praises on the architect of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement whom the Congress has squarely and consistently blamed for the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992.

“Wishing the venerable LK Advani a very happy 98th birthday. His unwavering commitment to public service, his modesty and decency and his role in shaping the trajectory of modern India are indelible. A true statesman whose life of service has been exemplary,” wrote Tharoor.

The criticism he invited from influential members of the civil society including advocate Sanjay Hegde did not deter Tharoor. When Hegde borrowed from late Khushwant Singh to tick off the Kerala Congress MP saying, “Sorry Mr Tharoor but unleashing the dragon seeds of hatred in this country is not public service”, Tharoor hit back harder and said Advani, like Jawaharlal Nehru, could not be judged by a single life event.

“Reducing his (Advani’s) long years of service to one episode, however significant, is unfair. The totality of Nehru ji’s career cannot be judged by the China setback nor Indira Gandhi by the Emergency alone. We should extend the same courtesy to Advani ji,” Tharoor said in a retort to Hegde.

Tharoor’s Advani defence came just two days after he had slammed dynastic politics in an essay titled “Indian politics are a family business”, published in Project Syndicate, a media organisation that publishes commentary on global issues.

In this piece, Tharoor spoke of the Congress Party’s first family as a force perpetrating political nepotism.

“For decades one family has towered over Indian politics. The influence of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty — including independent India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, PMs Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and current leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi and MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra — is bound up with the history of India’s struggle for freedom but has also cemented the idea that political leadership can be a birthright,” wrote Thraoor.

His strong critique of family based parties echoed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ruling BJP’s line that dynastic politics is a grave threat to Indian democracy.

Even before this, on PM’s handling of Operation Sindoor and consequent cessation of hostilities with Pakistan, Tharoor voiced views diametrically opposite to Rahul Gandhi’s and Congress Party’s, barely inviting a censure from within.

On the 50th anniversary this June of the 1975 Emergency, Tharoor described the event as a dark chapter in Indian democracy, a period of authoritarian overreach by late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and one when “terrible atrocities including forced sterilisations” were unleashed under her son Sanjay Gandhi.

The Congress response to Tharoor’s aberrations has so far been — dissociate with his personal views, wait and watch.

Even on his Advani remarks, all that the party said on Sunday through media head Pawan Khera was, “Dr Thatoor speaks for himself, that he continues to do so as a Congress MP and CWC member reflects the essential democratic and liberal spirit unique to INC.”

That said, many Congress insiders ask how long the party will condone the Kerala MP’s statements that fly in the face of its stated ideological and political positions.

A section recalls AICC disciplinary committee’s April 22 show cause notice to then Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar for his alleged remarks against former state CM Charanjit Singh Channi. That notice, issued to haul up Jakhar for crossing the party discipline, caused the veteran leader to leave the Congress and join the BJP.

“If Jakhar, whose family served the Congress for generations, was not spared, why should Shashi Tharoor, who joined the Congress in 2009, be given such a long rope” asked a party leader.

No one has clear answers to why.

But the buzz is the Congress does not want to take chances with Tharoor until after the 2026 Kerala assembly elections. The party has lost two past assembly polls in Kerala in a row and can’t afford any risks this time around.

Meanwhile Tharoor, who has been winning parliamentary elections in Kerala since 2009, now has larger political ambitions in the southern state.

He is however conscious that the crowded Congress high table in Kerala has no space for him. This explains his serial provocations of the party.

The Congress for its part has a problem of plenty when it comes to Kerala leadership.

AICC general secretary organisation KC Venugopal, the closest aide of Rahul Gandhi, has chief ministerial ambitions, so also opposition leader VD Satheesan, senior leader Ramesh Chennithala and former Kerala Congress presidents K Sudhakaran and K Mulareedharan.

Conventional wisdom is the Congress won’t disturb Tharoor, who has significant pockets of influence in his Lok Sabha segment. Well not at least until 2026 state polls.

But the question is — what’s the guarantee Tharoor will wait out his time and not make the next move by then.