On Saturday (November 20), the Youth Congress backed off from hosting a seminar on ‘Sangh Parivar and challenges to secularism’ to which Congress MP Shashi Tharoor was invited. The seminar is scheduled to be held in Kozhikode on Sunday.
Notably, the Kozhikode district committee of the Youth Congress had invited Tharoor to speak in the seminar, however, the congress body later withdrew from hosting the event. Reports suggest that the Congress leadership has given unofficial order to the party’s local units not to host any of Shashi Tharoor’s programmes.
Although the Youth Congress Congress has stepped back, the event will still go as planned at the same venue in Kozhikode but will now be hosted by Jawahar Youth Foundation, a Congress-affiliated group. Reports also suggest that the Youth Congress is asked not to host any further events with Shashi Tharoor.
In a Facebook post, Youth Congress state unit vice-president and former legislator K S Sabarinadhan said, “Through this program, Tharoor could have highlighted the Congress’s secular stand in North Kerala.” However, I learned from the media that a directive was issued from certain quarters to change this programme.”
It is pertinent to note here that Shashi Tharoor had recently put up a fight against veteran Congress leader and a Gandhi family loyalist, Mallikarjun Kharge for the position of Congress President. Backed by the Gandhi family, Kharge secured an easy victory over Shashi Tharoor whose candidacy in the elections irked the party leadership.
Notably, Sonia Gandhi has been the President of the Congress for most part of the past two decades. In fact, the Nehru-Gandhi family has ruled the party since 1978, with the exception of brief periods between 1992 and 1998 when PV Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri were in charge. Sitaram Kesri was the last non-Gandhi family leader to hold the top leadership position of the Congress party, and his departure was one of the most controversial.
Soon after taking charge as the Congress president, Kharge formed a 47-member steering committee that replaced the Congress Working Committee (CWC). Kharge however, did not include Tharoor in the committee. The move was speculated to be a punishment to Tharoor for contesting against the Gandhi family loyalist.
Recently, Shashi Tharoor was also dropped from the party’s star campaigners list for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections.
In what was seen as Shashi Tharoor’s attempt to make a comeback in Kerala politics, the recent snub reflects that a section of the party along with the high command which anyways opposed to dissenting voices is visibly upset with Tharoor.
When asked by the media whether the rise in his stature in the party could be a cause of worry for someone in the party, Tharoor said, “I don’t fear anyone and I don’t think anyone should fear me either.”
‘Party high-command culture will expire soon’: When Shashi Tharoor advocated for the change that never came
On 30th September 2022, Shashi Tharoor in an interview with ABP News said that the expiry date of the ‘high-command’ culture has come closer. Tharoor had stated that it is time for the party’s decisions to be made from the bottom rather than the top. Earlier, every decision was from the top, which was not right, he said.
Talking about the G-23 group of senior Congress leaders and a need for internal reforms, Tharoor said, “There was no such group. It is in the minds of the media. Senior Congress leaders had written a letter. All those who were in Delhi had signed that letter. At that time only 23 people were in Delhi, so it is called G-23. Many of them have left Congress. I have always given many suggestions to the Congress high command and said that there is a need for reform within our party. I had raised questions before the G-23 as well.”
