"Happy To See This Progress": Shashi Tharoor On Bihar Infrastructure

The Nitish Kumar government's work on the infrastructure got a big thumbs up from Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday. The BJP, Congress' national rival, is in alliance with Nitish Kumar's party, the JDU, in Bihar.

"No question that the infrastructure is so much better than I had heard before. The roads are better. People are out on streets even late at night, which was not always the case in the past. So far, the electricity seems to work, the water, everything else," Tharoor, who was in Bihar to attend the first Nalanda Literary Festival at the revived Nalanda University, told NDTV.

"I mean, very many good things have happened in recent years, no doubt," Tharoor said.

Asked about Nitish Kumar, the Congress MP played coy: "Don't get me into politics here. I am certainly very happy to see this progress. The people of Bihar and their representatives deserve credit."

#BREAKING | "Many good things have happened in recent years": Congress MP Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) lauds Bihar's infrastructure pic.twitter.com/dNp5qV28oD

— NDTV (@ndtv) December 22, 2025

The Congress has so far not reacted to Tharoor's latest comments in Bihar, praising the work of a government that is in alliance with the BJP.

Last month, at a media event in Dubai, Tharoor lamented a political landscape in which "everybody has to be a purist, ideologically, (and) will not see any merit on the other side or talk to anybody on the other side".

Tharoor, a four-time MP, is widely seen as being on thin ice with the Congress' central leadership after a number of comments that appear to praise the Prime Minister and the ruling BJP.

These include remarks about the PM's handling of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and the consequent military strikes on Pakistan, as well as occasional critical comments in the media.

Tharoor has always maintained his comments reflect only the desire to better serve India.

Earlier, Shashi Tharoor criticised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the hijab-related controversy, saying the incident was inappropriate and stressing that women must be treated with respect.

The video allegedly shows the Chief Minister asking a woman doctor, Dr Nusrat Parveen, to remove her hijab before receiving her appointment letter and then pulling it off himself.

"A video has surfaced in which Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is accused of trying to pull a woman's hijab. I want to say that all women should be respected, and this incident was not right," Tharoor had said.