This Article is From Oct 07, 2014

Attacked Because I'm Seen as an Outsider, Shashi Tharoor Tells NDTV

Attacked Because I'm Seen as an Outsider, Shashi Tharoor Tells NDTV

Dr Shashi Tharoor speaks to NDTV's Nidhi Razdan

Thiruvananthapuram: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor told NDTV today that he is "seen as a foreign object in the body politic" and that those in the Kerala branch of his party who accuse him of praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi have neither understood his remarks, nor bothered to talk to him.

"Perhaps there's a difficulty in digesting who I am and how I conduct myself," said Mr Tharoor, who is among the compact group of 44 Congress members who won their constituencies in May's national election, when the party aggregated its worst-ever performance.   "I have come into politics late in my life, so perhaps there are some incompatibilities that have been manifest in these reactions," he said about his colleagues in his home state of Kerala.

The political unsettlement in the Kerala Congress has been triggered by Mr Tharoor featuring among nine prominent Indians who were tagged by the Prime Minister when he launched his countrywide five-year Clean India campaign last week on Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary. The PM said he hoped his nominees would help further the cause of cleaning up public spaces, and urged them to tag nine others in turn.  

Mr Tharoor responded that he was "honoured" by the invite but stressed that he does not believe in mere tokenism and hoped the initiative would seek to make a real and lasting change.  The Kerala Congress has pilloried him since then, insisting that it will urge the party's senior leaders in Delhi to punish Mr Tharoor.   Today, a  mouthpiece of the Kerala Congress today accused him of "writing love letters" to the PM.  

"Everyone who has been on television from Kerala has my number," said Mr Tharoor, " (but) they have chosen to go public... this reflects different concerns than a desire to seek my clarification."

The 58-year-old MP from Thiruvanathapuram said that his only writing on the controversy has been in this column on ndtv.com - and said his comments are being read selectively and misinterpreted.



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