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There is a strange paradox about senior ‘Congress’ leader Shashi Tharoor. While “friends” (the Congress) hate him, the “foes” (the BJP) love him. There is a reason for that. In the Congress, he is turning out to be a misfit with every passing day. The more his stature rises nationally, the more uncomfortable people within his party start feeling. Rather, they have already started getting uncomfortable and they are not making any effort to hide their discomfort either. 

 

Here again, he is faced with a double whammy. Coming from Kerala, which is going for elections within a year now, the party does not have any match to his popularity to project as the chief ministerial candidate. Of course he will not be. There is ‘someone else’ waiting in the wings, commanding an ace position in the ‘Congress cockpit’, called the party high command. This person is considered to be more powerful than the Congress president himself. This is because of his proximity with the “first family”.

 

Leave aside Kerala. Tharoor is a challenge to the leadership nationally as well. It is not as if he is being admired now across the country for the stand he took in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack. He was already popular among the masses as well as the elite. He has over 8 million followers on ‘X’ (earlier Twitter), just to quote an example of his popularity, particularly among the opinion-making sections of the society.

 

The Congress really did not come out well in overall terms in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack and subsequent ‘Operation Sindoor’. While initially it offered token support to the government for whatever it decided to do to avenge the terror attack, it ended up taking a stringently critical position of the government, even refusing to acknowledge categorically that India had dealt a decisive blow to Pakistan by destroying the terror bases in Bahawalpur and Muridke, besides hitting an airbase.

 

Now, the party appears to have shifted its focus on its own leader Tharoor. First, the party had not considered the government recommendation suggesting his name for inclusion in delegations, which had to visit different countries, nor that of Manish Tewari, Salman Khurshid and Dr Amar Singh. But the government went ahead despite Congress’ reservations. Then the party started distancing itself, mainly from what Tharoor was saying.

 

So much so, one of the party leaders and spokesperson Udit Raj accused Tharoor of taking a “pro-BJP” stand. Raj wrote on ‘X’, “I could prevail upon PM Modi to declare you as a super spokesperson of the BJP, even foreign minister before you land in India.” This was reposted by the party's chairperson of the Media and Publicity Department Pawan Khera, thus making it the official stand of the party towards Tharoor.

 

The Congress has a problem with Tharoor saying that since 2016, India has retaliated to acts of terror decisively and hit the terror camps deep inside Pakistan. This is the line the BJP has been taking. However, the Congress claimed that Indian defence forces had entered Pakistan in 1965 also where Indian soldiers were seen having tea near Lahore. It was during the war and not any retaliatory action against an act of terror. 

 

But there is a difference. Congress has been trying to misrepresent what Tharoor said. Tharoor was only talking in terms of India’s response to terror attacks. Khera again posted a quote from Shashi Tharoor’s book, “Paradoxical Prime Minister”, which is about Narendra Modi. In the book, Tharoor had questioned BJP exploiting the surgical strikes of 2016 in the aftermath of the Uri terror attack. “The shameless exploitation of the 2016 surgical strikes along the Line of Control with Pakistan and in hot pursuit of rebels in Myanmar as a party election tool - something the Congress had never done despite having authorised several such strikes earlier - marked a particularly disgraceful dilution of the principle that national security issues require both discretion and non-partisanship.” Khera commented, sarcastically, “I agree”.

 

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An irrepressible Tharoor retorted, “for those zealots fulminating about my supposed ignorance of Indian valour across the LOC in the past… I was clearly and explicitly speaking only about reprisals for terrorist attacks and not about previous wars; & my remarks were preceded by a reference to the several attacks that have taken place in recent years alone, during which previous Indian responses were both restrained and constrained by our responsible respect for the LoC and the IB. But as usual, critics and trolls are welcome to distort my views and words as they see fit. I genuinely have better things to do.”

 

The Congress’ official reaction, since it has come from one of the senior spokespersons and head of the Media and Publicity Department, Pawan Khera, looks like one out of desperate frustration. Even if the party has any issues with Tharoor, it should have reserved its reactions till the time he comes back. The party clearly appears to be in the process of creating a situation where he would have no option but to resign.

 

The party on its own cannot afford to take the grave risk of taking any action against him, lest it be construed that he was punished for defending the national cause, which he actually is doing. The Congress is only contradicting itself from its position of extending full support and cooperation to the government in dealing with the situation. Tharoor has not said anything wrong or incorrect. Moreover, he has also clarified, although it was already clear, that he was speaking in context of the reprisal to terror attacks and not about any previous wars.

 

Tharoor has a pleasantly powerful political personality. He indeed was and continues to be a challenge to the party in terms of its existing or “prospective” leadership. And such people do not have any space or place in the party. The ecosystem within the party will obviously work overtime to malign him and create a situation for his exit. That process has already started.

 

But the Congress is not doing any good to itself by maligning and alienating such a popular leader within its ranks. The party is clearly betraying its own insecurities and frustration whose reasons are not hidden from anyone.

 

The Congress could have been more graceful and should have, in fact, claimed credit for its leader defending the national position at international fora. But that would mean praising and lauding Tharoor, which the party does not want to do for obvious reasons.