JAIPUR: Despite a cold and rainy day in the Pink City, author and senior Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor triggered a hot political debate at the Jaipur Literature Festival on Sunday. Tharoor asserted that ‘I, me, myself’ politics that has been happening in the country for the last 10 years, represents a major threat to Indian democracy. In such a situation, he asked the audience to vote for the opposition, and then we will name our leader.
“I do not want to create controversy here by taking the name of any one leader. This has happened in our party before too,” added Tharoor.
The Congress MP from Kerela said so while presenting his views in the session based on democracy in Jaipur Literature Festival. Further, raising questions on the functioning of the country’s constitutional institutions, he termed the ED and CBI as ‘rubber stamps’.
Tharoor pointed out that, “We have a parliamentary system, which is quite bad. Our parliamentary system is being run presidentially, which is not good for a democratic institution. In 2014, the election slogan should have been ‘I, not we’, but in the last 10 years it has been ‘I, myself’, which is related to an individual. However, we would not like to go into whether he has solved all the problems or not.”
In the midst of all this, Tharoor urged that “alternative leadership should also get a chance. Where experienced qualified leaders are present, who will listen to you with humanity. Will talk about you, not about myself. What is your problem and what is your need?” However, on this the moderator asked how all this would work in the India alliance, to which Tharoor said that “this is the only way. If you don’t have anyone suitable to vote for, try voting for the opposition.”
During this, he said that there are many political parties in the country, which are running according to each state. This is what scares me about how the country is running, because every state has its own politics and its own history. It is so in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. There are similar political parties, but both have different politics. Along with Shashi Tharoor, Inderjit Roy was also present in the session held at JLF’s Charbagh, with whom famous television anchor Nidhi Razdan spoke. During this, Tharoor said about democracy that the previous governments had worked hard to implement it properly, but now the situation has changed.
Tharoor said that the previous governments had worked hard to implement democracy well. Now the situation there has changed. After Modi’s arrival, the opposition is not being given a chance to present its side even in the House. Democratic institutions are working like rubber stamps.
‘Another leader should get a chance’
Senior Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor urged that “alternative leadership should also get a chance. Where experienced qualified leaders are present, who will listen to you with humanity. Will talk about you, not about myself. What is your problem and what Is your need?”