This Article is From Oct 14, 2014

Yes, Tharoor Speaks. Why Don't Mrs and Master Gandhi?

(Ashok Malik is a columnist and writer living in Delhi)

Before discussing Shashi Tharoor's removal as spokesperson of the Congress, some background is called for. Office-bearers and functionaries of a political party do not have an unfettered right to free opinion. This may sound crude and undemocratic but it is not fundamentally untrue. Ordinary people, common supporters of the party and even junior MPs have greater license and can take an openly different stance and a publicly contrarian view. Not leaders or faces of the party. This is especially true when it comes to core party principles and positions.

Take an example. Let's presume the Congress is wedded to a rural-based development of India and adopts as its charter a programme to promote only villages and not support outlays for new cities or urban centres. In this scenario, if a Shashi Tharoor were to stand up and praise Narendra Modi's mission to build 100 smart cities, he would be opposing a key and strongly-felt concern of the party.

In 2009, when Jaswant Singh wrote a book that painted Jinnah as the victim of Partition, pinned blame for the division in 1947 on Nehru and Patel, and questioned some of the foundational beliefs of free India, the BJP had to remove him from the frontline of its leadership (it's another matter that it didn't necessarily have to expel him). As a top leader of the BJP, Singh simply did not have the autonomy or the licence that he could have demanded as an ordinary member or a back-bencher MP.

Having made this first-principles point, let us examine Tharoor's case. Has he violated a fundamental canon of the Congress? Has he demanded India be converted into a Hindu raj? Has he recommended a formal denunciation of Indira Gandhi's socialism? All he has done is fleetingly praise Narendra Modi on one or two occasions, almost always couching his comments in criticism.

A few weeks ago, Tharoor and this writer, along with a few others, spoke at a conference hosted by the Institute of South Asian Studies in Singapore. The theme of the conference was the new government in India. In his presentation on Modi's foreign policy, many of the Indian participants felt Tharoor was excessively and prematurely critical of the BJP-led government. As such, anybody who suggests Tharoor has been uniformly and consistently cheering Modi since May 16 is simply not correct.

There are two points the Congress has to bear in mind. The problem with the party is not that Tharoor has said nice things about Modi here and there, or that he has accepted the Prime Minister's "Swachh Bharat challenge" on Twitter. Those are fairly trivial and inconsequential matters.

The real problem is the Congress' authoritative and institutional voice is completely missing from the public and policy sphere. Aside from opposing the government - while paradoxically claiming Modi is only continuing the UPA's policies - and desperately hoping for the Prime Minister to fail, the Congress has nothing to show for itself or its distinctiveness. There is no ideational exercise and no quest for renewal.

All this is a result of the Congress' acts of omission. It is not a result of Tharoor's acts of commission. More than the speech and presence of Mr Tharoor, it is the silence and absence of Mrs and Master Gandhi that is hurting the party.

Finally, consider the disciplinary committee that sacked Tharoor, ostensibly following a complaint from the Kerala unit of the Congress. The committee comprises Motilal Vora, AK Antony and Sushil Shinde. The average age of the committee is 77. It includes two men who did not contest the 2014 Lok Sabha election, and a third who lost. They have sat in judgement on a man, good, bad, ugly or over-loquacious as he may be, who won a tough election in a tough year for his party.

As the Americans say, go figure!

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