The 'ideological showdown' between the Rahul Gandhi-led Congress and Shashi Tharoor was analysed, in quite some detail, by an X user Sunday evening and prompted a brief response from the Thiruvananthapuram MP. In a dozen posts the X user - Civitas Sameer - framed the discord between the Congress and one of its seniormost leaders as a 'contrast between two ideological tendencies' and blamed the opposition party for its 'inability to choose, integrate, or execute either, coherently'.
"Thank you for this thoughtful analysis," Shashi Tharoor, who had tongues wagging again last week after skipping a third consecutive major party meet, replied, "There has always been more than one tendency in the party; your framing is fair, and reflective of a certain perception of the current reality."
Pat came the X user's reply, "Damn!"
Thank you this thoughtful analysis. There has always been more than one tendency in the party; your framing is fair, and reflective of a certain perception of the current reality. https://t.co/wQuTj2KFkh
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) December 14, 2025
The framing revolved around the party's 'devastating post 2010-shift... to a rural grievance-driven mass party', in response to an electorally dominant Bharatiya Janata Party, and its MP's 'broad alignment with a 1990s' era urban-facing, institutionally oriented, and reform-compatible Congress'.
"This orientation emerged during economic transition and elite-led governance, not as virtue, but as a historical circumstance... like PV Narasimha Rao, Manmohan Singh (as Union Finance Minister), SM Krishna, and Montek Singh Ahluwalia operated within this framework. Their politics relied on policy, institutions, and administrative competence, not mass mobilisation or cultural embedding."
Tharoor broadly aligns with a 90's era Congress tendency that was urban-facing, institutionally oriented, and reform-compatible. This orientation emerged during economic transition and elite-led governance, not as virtue, but as a historical circumstance.
— Civitas Sameer (@CivitasSameer) December 14, 2025
"It is these very same urban technocratic leaders that the Congress repeatedly sidelines, again and again" the X user declared, "All of these aforementioned leaders gained more recognition and respect from the RW (i.e., the right wing) than the party... in today's Congress era."
Many saw references here to high-profile ex-Congress leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia, who jumped to the BJP in 2020 and brought down the former party's Madhya Pradesh government as he did so.
RECAP | Jyotiraditya Scindia Joins BJP, Says Congress No Longer The Party It Was
Scindia and others like him - ex-Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot, for example - have been seen by the Congress' critics as a younger generation being sidelined by the old guard.
After his BJP jump, Scindia served as the Union Aviation Minister for three years and, in June last year, in the third Narendra Modi government was made the Union Communications Minister.
X user Sameer then compared the political fortunes of 'urban technocratic leaders repeatedly sidelined by the Congress' with that of the party's post-2010 tactical shift.
The most ironic part of it all is that the individual leading this rural turn is among the most elite and insulated figures in Indian politics. Born into a dynastic family, symbolic rural politics without lived or organisational depth lacks any credibility.
— Civitas Sameer (@CivitasSameer) December 14, 2025
"The most ironic part of it all is that the individual leading this rural turn (i.e., Rahul Gandhi) is among the most elite and insulated figures in Indian politics. Born into a dynastic family, (his) symbolic rural politics without lived or organisational depth lacks any credibility."
"Rural politics in India is not rhetorical. It is organisational, cultural, and long-term. BJP succeeds here because of cadre depth, discipline, and cultural alignment through the RSS. Congress has none of this infrastructure, and yet wants to behave like a poor man's messiah."
"The Congress today is neither a credible urban reformist party nor a serious rural mass party. It has abandoned one without successfully transforming... as a result, its identity is now primarily oppositional (and) not aspirational. For a national party, this is fatal..."
The analysis also suggested Tharoor's 'rightward shift' - which his critics in the Congress have claimed based on recent comments praising Prime Minister Modi - is non-existent. The four-time Lok Sabha MP remains, the posts said, 'a proud Hindu from day one for his own reasons'.
"Like the urban technocratic leaders of the past, he is being sidelined by this new Congress."
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