THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On the eve of his keenly-watched Malabar tour, Shashi Tharoor is facing an undeclared ban in the Congress. The Youth Congress (YC) and the Kannur DCC have backed out of seminars they were scheduled to hold on Sunday and Wednesday with Tharoor as the main speaker.
When he landed at Karipur airport on Saturday, Tharoor was in for a rude jolt as the YC, which was supposed to organise a talk on ‘Sangh Parivar and Challenges to Secularism’ at the KP Kesava Menon Hall on Sunday, had backed out. Following this, he was huddled with his close confidant MP M K Raghavan, who is the chief coordinator of Tharoor’s Malabar programmes. It is reliably learnt that Koduvally-based Congress affiliated organisation — Jawahar Youth Foundation — will organise the event on Sunday.
The Malappuram DCC’s plan to give Tharoor a rousing reception at their office was also scrapped. Instead, Tharoor will visit the party office on Tuesday at 9am, Malappuram Congress chief VS Joy confirmed to TNIE.
Kannur DCC too backed out from holding a talk on ‘Democracy, Secularism and Politics; Nehruvian Perspective’ on Wednesday at Kannur Chamber Hall.
Even when the state Congress top brass claims that they are unfazed about Tharoor making ripples, the knee-jerk reactions show that they are a worried lot.
Top party and YC leaders did not respond to TNIE’s calls for comment. Tharoor, meanwhile, feigned ignorance about the so-called ban. “I don’t have any enemies in the party. The party has not imposed any ban. The programmes in Malabar were decided earlier,” he told the media. Tharoor is scheduled to kick off his four-day Malabar tour on Sunday.