Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said the party has in recent years become more Leftist as it seeks to counter the "divisive politics" of BJP.
Responding to a question on whether the Congress and the Left parties coming together against the BJP's politics represented 'radical centrism' in action, Tharoor, who delivered a lecture on 'Radical Centrism' earlier, said his remarks were not about "nuts and bolts practical politics" but convictions and ideology, where some gaps needed to be bridged.
"But, tactical adjustments have been made more and more. In fact, in some ways, one of the consequences is that my party has become a much more, sort of, Left party than it used to be.
"In the sense that, if you look at the party of say Dr Manmoban Singh, you could argue it was more consciously centrist in its approach. It borrowed from some of the policies of the predecessor BJP government," Tharoor said at the event on Thursday night.
The Congress leader recalled that the Congress had established some of the policies in the early 1990s under then-Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, which the BJP followed when it came to power a few years later.
It can be argued that there was a centrist phase between 1991 and 2009, which arguably started changing thereafter, he said.
"Certainly, in the last few years in opposition, Congress has become much more of a Leftist party than it used to be in the earlier days. Whether that is tactical adjustment or philosophical conviction or whatever remains to be seen," he said.
Tharoor clarified, however, that what he was advocating went beyond immediate tactical adjustments at the political seat level.
Tharoor on Thursday delivered the Jyoti Komireddi Memorial Lecture on 'Radical Centrism: My vision for India'.
Asked if he would contest again for the post of AICC president, Tharoor said he does not see himself contesting again unless the circumstances are very different.
"I had some experiences in contesting that election which I am not prepared to talk about publicly just now, but which did not give me any inducements to repeat that experiment," he said.
He is glad still that the Congress had a process and a system under which it was possible to contest, Tharoor said.
Inner party democracy is extremely important not only in the Congress, but every party in the country, he said.
Tharoor said he also believes in term limits for party office-bearers and that nobody should hold office for an indefinite period of time in any party.
On the car blast near the Red Fort in Delhi on Monday evening, Tharoor said he does not want to "second guess" what the government will do, but a terrorist attack is something that cannot go unpunished.
The government has said it will hunt down the perpetrators. It is extremely important to protect citizens, he said.
On US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's comments that the "vision" is to bring in skilled overseas workers who train Americans and then go back home, Tharoor said it will be seen how it is implemented in practice.
"From India's point of view, we are very happy to encourage our people to gain experience outside, to earn a good income, but we certainly want them to come back to our country. We are not here to promote permanent migration elsewhere," he said.
He is in favour of Indians bringing their experience, expertise, higher technologies to the country to help in its own progress, Tharoor said.
"So, if the Americans say that 'come and work for a few years and go back', I'm not going to oppose that. I would love to have them come back and work in India," he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
