There has been a lot of media speculation on what congress leader & four term MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor will do next. And with reason. Recently Tharoor had a meeting with Rahul Gandhi and soon after, details of the meeting were leaked to the media; since neither Rahul nor Tharoor spoke about it, the leak could have originated from a party general secretary close to Rahul Gandhi; someone who has a vested interest in seeing Tharoor fall. According to the leak, Tharoor asked Rahul Gandhi for a definitive role within the party. He is reportedly keen to be projected as the Congress candidate for the next chief minister of Kerala (the state goes to polls next year). Apparently Rahul told him that the Congress does not usually project a CM face at the time of campaigning. This has been interpreted as a sign of no confidence in Tharoor’s candidature and could be one reason behind his revolt.
First the revolt. Of late Tharoor has been voicing opinions that are not in sync with the party line. He praised the Prime Minister’s visit to the United States (and we all know how any praise of the PM goes down with Rahul Gandhi). He also praised the Pinarayi Vijayan led LDF government’s entrepreneurial policies in Kerala even though the Congress is not in alliance with the CPM in the state. Both these actions have not gone down well with the Congress. No surprise there, so then why is Tharoor flirting with the enemy?
Well, ever since he contested the Presidential Election against the current Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge (who was the Establishment’s choice), Tharoor has been feeling sidelined within the party. His candid talk and the issues he raised about inner party democracy could be one reason for this as he certainly hit a chord, garnering about 11% of the votes (the highest by any challenger ever). Even prior to his contesting the elections he was part of the G 23 group that signed a letter to the party leadership flagging concerns about the way the party was being lead. Since then the leadership (read Rahul Gandhi more than Sonia) has treated him somewhat warily. Add to this the fact that KC Venugopal, one of Tharoor’s rivals in the state Congress in Kerala holds a powerful post within the organization and is one of Rahul’s most trusted aides. There are a dozen ways in which Tharoor can be used by the party for he is articulate, media savvy and has a following that goes beyond the Congress base. Moreover, the issues that he has been raising are those which many Congress leaders have been muttering about, but not flagging for fear of losing whatever plum post they currently hold.
But for the Congress to make a comeback Rahul needs to look beyond the echo chamber and hear voices that are not in sync with his. To argue that Tharoor is not toeing the party line would be very well if the said party line had been arrived at after much debate and discussion within the Congress or at least its working committee. Instead it is issued as a diktat from the powers that be. This is also the way that the BJP works for there is certainly no inner party democracy in the Modi-Shah set up. But the BJP workers take the diktat even if they don’t agree with it, because its a line that helps them win elections. So either Rahul will have to find a line that wins elections or else involve more voices in the decision making, even those that do not agree with him.
As for Tharoor , he has said in a recent podcast that while he is available to the party he has `options’ if the Congress didn’t want to utilize his services. In that he is not exaggerating for he has enough political and non-political options. As to the former, parties like the TMC and the BJP would be happy to offer him a Rajya Sabha at the very least. Only a word of caution, will Tharoor be able to speak as freely in either outfit, the way he does in the Congress? Clearly the best way out for both Tharoor and the Congress would be to find a palatable working equation and figure out a way to co-exist. Would he be such a disastrous choice as the Congress party’s CM face for Kerala? Looking at the options, he certainly stands tallest amongst his state rivals both in terms of mass appeal and leadership credentials. Let that not be a handicap any longer.
