The praise Shashi Tharoor lavished on the new Prime Minister in May and his nomination as one of Narendra Modi?s front men of cleanliness has been punished by the Congress. After weeks of mounting pressure ? from Kerala to the party?s headquarters in New Delhi ? the Congress on Monday removed Tharoor as its national spokesman.
A dejected Tharoor accepted the decision as a ?loyal worker of the Congress? but said he regretted he was not given a chance to explain his side. The decision comes as a setback to the Thiruvananthapuram MP as it further undermines his standing. Tharoor was recently made head of the parliamentary standing committee on external affairs and has of late been playing a role in the formulation of the party?s stance on various foreign policy issues.
The Kerala party unit, which had asked Tharoor to stop his ?constant adulation of Narendra Modi?, had approached the top leadership last week seeking appropriate action against him. The central disciplinary action committee ? comprising A K Antony, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Motilal Vora ? agreed with the state unit?s view and recommended his removal.
?Congress president Sonia Gandhi has accepted the recommendation of the AICC disciplinary committee…with immediate effect,? said Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi. Tharoor was made a spokesperson in January this year.
Tharoor said he accept the decision and ?fully recognises? the prerogative of the party to assign any job to him. ?While I have not yet seen the KPCC complaint referred to, and while I would have welcomed an opportunity to respond to it, I am now treating this matter as closed and have no further comment to make,? he said.
Soon after he was sworn in as Prime Minister, Tharoor said Modi?s words so far were ?very conciliatory and inclusive?. Later, he suggested that Modi has remodeled himself from a ?hate figure? into an ?avatar of modernity and progress? and argued it would be ?churlish? of the Congress to ignore his ?inclusive and accommodative? outreach.
His prompt acceptance of Modi?s invitation to join the Swachh Bharat Mission and his praise of the initiative was perhaps the last straw.
Hours after his removal, AICC spokesperson Shobha Oza said a spokesperson has to always speak the party line. Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said a party spokesperson has to behave like a spokesperson of the party and not of himself.
Replying to a question, Oza said the Tharoor?s removal has nothing to do with fresh revelations in the suspicious death of wife Sunanda Pushkar.