Opinion: Why Tharoor's Nomination For Global Role Has Stirred The Congress Nest

Operation Sindoor and its aftermath have stirred the hornet's nest for the Congress. No one has openly spoken out against the leadership, but the actions of some individual leaders and their ‘off-the-record' chats reflect a disquiet within.

The party's stance stands in contrast with the mood of the nation and consensus among major political parties. At a time when polarisation in politics seems to be reducing, the party stands out as a sore thumb. This is not to say that all must fall in line. The government has admitted that there was an intelligence lapse behind the Pahalgam terrorist attack. This and the diplomatic fallout of Operation Sindoor, India's assertion that any terror act will be seen as an act of war, and the gains made in the field of indigenous defence production, reflected in the effective actions of our tri-services, merit discussion. That can wait till the Monsoon Session of Parliament, but the Congress doesn't seem to think so.

‘Surgical Strike' On Congress

However, a bigger development has shaken the Congress. By nominating Shashi Tharoor, a four-term Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram with a formidable experience in world affairs, as leader of one of an all-party delegation of MPs assigned the task of conveying the message of Operation Sindoor to decision-makers in foreign lands, the Narendra Modi regime has virtually performed a ‘surgical strike' on the party. Not just Tharoor, but the inclusion of Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari has also not been music to the ears of the party leadership. It is chagrined that the names it had proposed - Gaurav Gogoi, Syed Naseer Hussain and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring - were ignored. The Congress's displeasure was reflected in Ramesh's comment on the composition of the seven teams. “Congress main hona aur Congress ka hona main zameen-aasman ka antar hai (there is a huge difference between being in the Congress and those who are of the Congress)”.  

DMK's Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, who leads a delegation to Moscow, is also not the preferred name from her party, which is headed by her half-brother, MK Stalin.  But the DMK did not create a hullabaloo. All other parties accepted the nomination of their MPs with grace. To be sure, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju has even clarified that he had spoken to Congress leaders in the two Houses “out of courtesy” and not to seek names. 

Congress's ‘Infantile Disorder'

The Grand Old Party continues to be afflicted by ‘infantile disorder', a term used by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in 1920 to chide his opponents who took extreme positions. While the nation applauds the Narendra Modi government's effective response to the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam, the Congress leadership has been ultra-critical, even to the point of transgressing the yellow line of national interest.

What happened in Pahalgam could have set the nation on fire. But the government's handling of it turned the crisis into an opportunity. For the first time since Pakistan-sponsored terror reared its ugly head in Jammu & Kashmir in 1989, the entire state, from Kathua to Kupwara, rose up to condemn the Pahalgam tragedy. The nation united as one, and the free hand given by the political leadership to India's security forces was handsomely utilised by them as they dealt a decisive blow to Pakistan in just 25 minutes in the early hours of May 7. 

However, during and after the conflict, the top leadership of the Congress made noises that went against mainstream and popular sentiment. The opinions of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Jairam Ramesh did not resonate with leaders of other opposition parties who had shared the INDIA bloc platform during the Lok Sabha elections just a year ago. 

That dissonance is reflected in the INDIA bloc's response to the Congress's demand for a special Parliament session on Operation Sindoor. The Samajwadi Party and the Trinamool Congress, which have sizeable numbers of MPs in Parliament, have chosen not to react to it. Similarly, the veteran Sharad Pawar, who leads his faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-SP) and served as India's Defence Minister three decades ago, has distanced himself from the demand, saying strategic matters during war need not be disclosed in Parliament. 

Perhaps the Congress refuses to see how 2025 is not 1962. A parallel ought not to be drawn with a similar call made in 1962 by Atal Behari Vajpayee during the Chinese aggression in 1962, which made Jawaharlal Nehru summon a special session of Parliament. India had been on the back foot in that conflict. In contrast, this time, it was decisive and thorough as it launched an attack across the Line of Control (LoC), or the International Border (IB), to destroy terror infrastructure in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) as well as within Pakistan. Today, India's might is apparent to all — with the exception of those who perhaps suffer from Ostrich-vision. 

The Irony With Congress's Frustration

Back to Tharoor's nomination. Back in 2006, when he had unsuccessfully contested the election for the United Nations Secretary General, Tharoor was supported by the Sonia Gandhi-dominated UPA government. Should that not justify his credentials for his present-day nomination?

Another episode underlines the irony of the Congress's current stand. In December 2005, when India's then External Affairs Minister, K Natwar Singh, was forced to resign after his name figured in the Paul Volcker report as a beneficiary of Saddam Hussain's Oil for Food Programme (OFFP), he alleged that he had been made a scapegoat (the list of beneficiaries submitted to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan included other functionaries of the Congress). Back then, it was said that Tharoor, then an Assistant Secretary General of the UN, had helped senior Indian politicians tide them over possible embarrassment.

The big question now is, what happens to Tharoor after his delegation returns to India? At age 69, will he do a volte-face and change tack? That's unlikely, as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tag cannot possibly earn him brownie points in Kerala. What he aspires for is a larger role in the Congress, positing himself as a possible United Democratic Front candidate for the chief ministership of Kerala, which, ironically, will place him in direct contention with Rahul's party factotum, KC Venugopal, the General Secretary (Organisation) of Congress.

Will Rahul's preferences for the politics of Kerala shape his national politics too? The coming months will make that clear. For now, there's an interesting incident a senior Congress leader once narrated to this author: during one Parliament session, Tharoor and Tewari were casually chatting away when they saw Rahul Gandhi coming their way. They stiffened to greet their leader. Rahul, instead, chose to look through them, glancing at his cellphone as he walked past the duo. 

(Shubhabrata Bhattacharya is a retired editor and a public affairs commentator)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

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