THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In what appears to be a veiled salvo at the political ties between the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and the UDF, Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Shashi Tharoor has sounded the alarm bells over the rise of the Islamist organisation in India’s next-door neighbour, Bangladesh.
This comes at a time when the Congress is gearing up for crucial local-body and assembly elections with unconditional political support from the Jamaat’s political offshoot, the Welfare Party.
On Thursday, posting a news report on the unprecedented victory of JeI’s student wing in Dhaka university’s union election on X, he wrote that though the news may register as barely a blip on most Indian minds, it is a worrying portent of things to come in India.
“There is an increasing sense of frustration in Bangladesh with the Awami League (now banned) and Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Those who wish “a plague on both your houses” are increasingly turning to Jamaat e Islami, not because these voters are zealots or Islamist fundamentalists, but because the JeI are not tainted by corruption and misgovernance associated, rightly or wrongly, with the two mainstream parties. How will this play out in the February 2026 general elections? Will New Delhi be dealing with a Jamaat majority next door?” he asked.
The main UDF allies, the Congress and the Muslim League, are yet to respond to Tharoor’s post.
“We are yet to see the statements,” League state general secretary P M A Salam told TNIE. Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan, who is also chairman of the UDF, was not available comment.
Tharoor’s anguish, particularly at the rise of JeI, is being viewed with circumspection in political circles, especially as he did not touch upon the unrests in Nepal and Sri Lanka. On Friday, in an article on the NDTV website, Tharoor wrote that JeI, having been suppressed and persecuted during Awami League’s long rule, is now finding fertile ground to re-emerge and consolidate its influence.
“Its victory in a bastion of secular and progressive politics like Dhaka University underscores its growing appeal, particularly among new generation voters who did not witness the party’s controversial role in the 1971 Liberation War. So, what does this mean for India?” he asks.
Tharoor also hit out at trolls accusing him of praising JeI and said that if the words ‘a worrying portent of things to come’ qualifies as ‘praise’ he could only say that English language is not what it used to be when he learned it.
Interestingly, it was Satheesan who had taken the initiative to build ties with JeI. He had said, in the run-up to the Nilambur by-election, that JeI had not backed religious statism.
“They made a decision at the national level that Congress should not become weak. They have changed a lot. They are supporting Congress and UDF,” he said then.