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During Shashi Tharoor’s first meeting with party colleagues, there was a keen sense of discomfort as many of them were unhappy about his controversial comments on Operation Sindoor
BJP MPs Tejasvi Surya and Mahesh Sharma with Congress MP Shashi Tharoor during the first day of the monsoon session of Parliament, in New Delhi on July 21. (Image: PTI/Shahbaz Khan)
For Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, the first day of the monsoon session in Parliament on Monday may have felt like his first day in school.
Tharoor’s day began at 10.15 am with a meeting of Congress MPs to discuss party strategy during the session, which will end next month. During this meeting, however, there was a keen sense of discomfort as many of his colleagues were unhappy about his controversial comments after Operation Sindoor.
This meeting, too, came a day after his viral remarks on prioritising nation over party, leading Congress leader V Muraleedharan to suggest excluding Tharoor from all party events in Kerala.
According to party sources, there is no such decision yet but Tharoor knew he had once again stirred the top leadership. During the meeting, some leaders spoke to him but he remained mostly silent, they said.
Outside, however, Tharoor was seen interacting with BJP leaders like Suresh Gopi, also from Kerala, and the two exchanged numbers. He met Tejaswi Surya, with whom he had been part of a delegation to the US, and Praful Patel. At one point, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi approached Tharoor and joked: “Now that you said nation first, the Congress thinks you are joining the BJP”, to which Tharoor merely smiled.
The Congress seems uncertain on how to handle Tharoor. In Kerala, there is evident animosity towards him, leading to open and direct attacks. The state Congress believes his words will only benefit the CPI(M) and the BJP, which is gradually gaining ground.
But the Congress central leadership is hesitant to address him. They feel that taking action against Tharoor on issues like national security would be politically damaging.
In parliament corridors, there was a brief encounter between KC Venugopal and Tharoor. Venugopal is powerful and close to the Gandhis but is said to belong to a different camp than Tharoor, with whom he rarely sees eye to eye.
When urged by the media, he approached Tharoor to state he had no issues with him. But attempts to take pictures together were unsuccessful. Both sides are observing and gauging each other, waiting to see who will blink first.
Pallavi Ghosh has covered politics and Parliament for 15 years, and has reported extensively on Congress, UPA-I and UPA-II, and has now included the Finance Ministry and Niti Aayog in her reportage. She has als…Read More
Pallavi Ghosh has covered politics and Parliament for 15 years, and has reported extensively on Congress, UPA-I and UPA-II, and has now included the Finance Ministry and Niti Aayog in her reportage. She has als… Read More
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