CHENNAI: Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday said the Congress-led UDF is predicted to win a minimum of 85 seats in the upcoming Kerala Assembly elections.
He was speaking to senior journalist Kaveree Bamzai on the topic “Why Liberal Arts Matter” on the first day of the 14th ThinkEdu Conclave.
Referring to the elections, Tharoor claimed there is “tremendous momentum” behind the Congress-led UDF and cited opinion polls projecting at least 85 seats for the alliance. He said he has received a strong public response during campaign interactions and noted that Kerala has alternated governments for over five decades before the last elections, making a third consecutive term for the Left unprecedented.
On whether he would be a Chief Ministerial candidate, Tharoor said such decisions rest with the Congress high command and that he remains focused on his role in Parliament. Asked about his differences with the party leadership, he said the issue, which was limited to differences of opinion on Operation Sindoor, had been resolved and stressed the need to present a united face in Kerala.
Commenting on the proposal to rename Kerala as ‘Keralam’, he said the ruling front had little to show for the past 10 years apart from adding the suffix ‘m’ to the state’s name. He also suggested radical measures to attract investment to the state, including banning hartals and enacting laws to protect investors.
Criticising the move to rename Kerala as ‘Keralam’, he termed it mere tokenism, arguing that long-pending demands such as establishing an AIIMS, addressing coastal erosion and providing support to fisherfolk and farmers remain unmet.
Tharoor also expressed concern over rising youth migration due to limited job opportunities, with some areas turning into “ghost towns”. He proposed attracting investment through policy stability, including an Investor Protection Act, and suggested positioning Kerala as a leader in holistic wellness and geriatric care by leveraging its strong healthcare workforce.
Amid the tensions in West Asia, Tharoor said multiple factors are driving the Israel-Iran conflict, beginning with Israel’s long-standing insecurity about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Citing Omani sources, he said that Iran had conveyed a willingness to commit to zero uranium enrichment and forgo nuclear weapons. “If that was indeed the case, the war raises serious questions, including about Washington’s motivations,” he said.
Beyond Israeli security concerns, he suggested the United States may see wider strategic opportunities, such as bringing sanctioned Iranian oil back into global markets to ease fuel prices ahead of mid-term elections in the US, weaken Russia’s leverage as a key energy supplier and cut to size China’s influence as Iran’s largest oil customer. “An Iran that moves out of geopolitical isolation into a Western orbit may suit American interests,” he observed, while cautioning that regime change without boots on the ground rarely succeeds.
He argued that what may have begun as Israeli insecurity appears to have morphed into a broader geopolitical calculation in Washington. But with China and Russia stopping only with criticism rather than intervention, the risk of a wider world war appears low, he said.
On liberal arts and Artificial Intelligence, he said his concern is that AI could begin substituting human thought. “If the next generation allows AI to take over the thinking process, we will be a deeply impoverished species,” he said.
Amid concerns over shrinking liberal arts courses, he argued that data alone is insufficient without the ability to understand context and human impact. Liberal arts, he said, provide nuance and the capacity to grasp complex motivations.
Citing an Oxford University study from 1990 to 2005, he said 96% of those involved in terrorist attacks in that period had engineering backgrounds. While it doesn’t mean all engineers are terrorists, many extremists at the time were trained in engineering, he said.
He argued that binary, certainty-driven thinking can foster rigid worldviews, claiming there is only one correct way to see the world. Liberal arts education nurtures nuance and an understanding of complex human motivations, helping people engage with society more thoughtfully, he said.