THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The recent posts and utterings by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor about Modi, perceived to be adulatory in tone, finally got the Congress party’s goat with his colleagues in the state warning him of disciplinary action and a national leader lampooning him of having ‘defected to BJP’. The latest act of provocation was Tharoor’s decision to accept the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan challenge thrown at him by Modi and his justification of doing so.
‘’We remained patient when he praised Modi a few times. Now it has become his habit to hail the Prime Minister at every given opportunity, even forgetting that the people elected him by rejecting the BJP. We’re not going to tolerate it anymore,” Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala told ‘Express’.
Tharoor responded to the criticism vehemently through Facebook and Twitter, calling the allegations baseless and insisting that he’s “not pro-BJP, just pro-India’. Tharoor, however was assailed by almost every one in the party cutting across group affiliations.
Mani Shankar Aiyar, Rajya Sabha member and Gandhi family loyalist, said Tharoor’s comments showed that ‘he had defected to BJP’. His observation assumes significance as the outbursts of Cong leaders came in a flurry amid reports that the party High Command has taken a serious view of Tharoor’s stand. KPCC president V M Sudheeran didn’t hide his surprise over Tharoor’s open endorsement of Modi. M M Hassan, KPCC vice president, said it is time for Tharoor to put an end to adulation showered on Modi. The party is likely to seek an explanation from Tharoor on the statements made by him, a measure considered short of admonition in public. The recent statements of Tharoor heaping praise on the Prime Minister’s UN GA address and the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan’ are viewed as moves to build a warm liaison with the the BJP.
“I am astonished that anyone would suggest that I am pro-BJP. I have a 30-year paper trail of published writings on my idea of India and my profound belief in India’s pluralism. Being receptive to specific statements or actions of BJP leaders does not remotely imply acceptance of the party’s core Hindutva agenda,” Tharoor posted in the Facebook.