This Article is From Oct 13, 2014

Wish 'Full Range' of Writings Had Been Considered: Shashi Tharoor

Wish 'Full Range' of Writings Had Been Considered: Shashi Tharoor

File photo of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor

New Delhi: Though Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has repeatedly rejected that he has publicly lavished praise on the Prime Minister, he was dropped today as one of the 18 spokespersons for his party. The decision was taken by Congress President Sonia Gandhi in response to complaints by the Kerala branch of the party - Mr Tharoor represents state capital Thiruvanthapuram in the Lok Sabha.

In a statement, Mr Tharoor, 58, said, "As a loyal worker of the Congress Party, I accept the decision of the Party President to relieve me of my responsibilities as a Spokesman." (Read full text of statement)

Mr Tharoor is among the more high-profile of a compact group of 44 Congress leaders who won the national election in May, when the party found itself saddled with its worst-ever defeat.

In columns written for ndtv.com, Mr Tharoor "penned love letters" to the PM, the Congress in Kerala had alleged, after the former union minister wrote that he was "honoured" to accept the PM's decision to include him in a group of nine prominent Indians to propagate the Clean India campaign, launched on Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary.

Mr Tharoor used Facebook, Twitter and television interviews, including one with NDTV last week to stress that his columns for ndtv.com were not being read in their entirety by his critics. He alleged that he was being singled out by his own party in Kerala because its local leaders think of him as an outsider. "I am seen as a foreign object in the body politic," he said to NDTV. He also said that none of the Kerala leaders attacking him for being 'pro-Modi" had sought a clarification from him, a charge he reiterated in his statement today on his removal as spokesperson. (Opinion: Shashi Tharoor on PM's Invite to Join Clean India Campaign)

"While I have not yet seen the KPCC complaint referred to, and while I would have welcomed an opportunity to respond to it and draw the attention of the AICC leadership to the full range of my statements and writings on contemporary political issues, I am now treating this matter as closed," he said.
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