Cong sacks Tharoor as party spokesman

The Congress on Monday removed Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor as party spokesman. The move followed complaints from the party leadership in Kerala about Tharoor’s recent statements and tweets endorsing the actions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Congress move is observed to have started the process of sending the writer-turned-politician to the BJP camp. Though Tharoor reaffirmed that he is treating the matter as closed, the BJP has come up in his support and said the Congress is intolerant to different voices.

The BJP, which had bagged about 10.8 per cent of the votes in Kerala during the Lok Sabha elections, is desperately looking for a face in the State. Many in the ruling party consider Tharoor, an elite non-resident Malayali, an ideal choice to lead the party in the State. Though the BJP and the RSS have a strong organisational network in Kerala, the party failed to send any representative to the State Assembly and the Lok Sabha. Tharoor, who belongs to the powerful Nair community, is seen as an ideal choice to attract the “new middle class” in the State.

In the recent past, the caste-based organisations in Kerala, such as the NSS, SNDP and the KPMS, have been showing proximity towards the BJP. Modi had attended the functions of some of these organisations during the Lok Sabha campaign and after becoming Prime Minister.

Tharoor, however, has scoffed at reports that he is going towards the BJP. “I have seen the press release issued by the AICC and, as a loyal worker of the Congress Party, accept the decision of the party President to relieve me of my responsibilities as a Spokesman,” he said in a statement.

He added that the Kerala leadership of the Congress did not give him an opportunity to present his case on the controversies. “While I have not yet seen the KPCC complaint referred to, and while I would have welcomed an opportunity to respond to it and draw the attention of the AICC leadership to the full range of my statements and writings on contemporary political issues, I am now treating this matter as closed and have no further comment to make,” he said.

Tharoor added that he has done his duties with utmost sincerity. “Whatever responsibilities the party has entrusted to me I have fulfilled without reservation and I fully recognise it is the prerogative of the party to alter these responsibilities,” he said.

Earlier on Monday, Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi issued a statement on Tharoor’s removal.

“Congress President Sonia Gandhi has accepted the recommendation of the AICC disciplinary committee to remove Shashi Tharoor from the list of spokespersons of the AICC with immediate effect. The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee had submitted a complaint in this regard to the disciplinary committee,” Dwivedi said in a press release.

The party has made it clear that the disciplinary action has nothing to do with the death of Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar.

COMMENT NOW