Congress in Kerala scrambles to stay clear of Shashi Tharoor's controversial article on Emergency
Kerala's Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan sidestepped questions from reporters about whether the Congress deemed Mr. Tharoor's bid to rake up the Emergency's 'dark past' was a wilful act of dissidence aimed at putting the party's national and State leadership on the defensive ahead of the crucial local body polls in 2025 and the Assembly elections in 2026 in Kerala.
Responding on the sidelines of the Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) leadership meeting in Kochi, Mr. Satheesan said: 'I read Mr. Tharoor's article and I have an opinion about it, which I reserve for myself. Mr. Tharoor is a member of the Congress Working Committee. No Congress leader in Kerala will hazard an adverse comment about Mr. Tharoor. If at all, if any party worker has a difference of opinion, the person can approach the All India Congress Committee (AICC), which is the sole arbitrator on matters concerning CWC members.'
Mr. Tharoor's article caused quite a stir in Kerala's political circles after Deepika, a mouthpiece of the influential Syrian-Catholic community, translated and published Mr. Tharoor's piece on Thursday, which had recently appeared as an opinion piece in an international media portal.
In the article, Mr. Tharoor dwelt on the 'litany of human rights abuses, including torture in detention and extra-judicial killings', which marked the period. He appeared to place the blame for the excesses on Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi.
Tharoor's post on survey
Recently, Mr. Tharoor had spelled trouble for the Congress by amplifying on social media a survey by a Mumbai-based organisation, which placed Mr. Tharoor as the most-preferred Chief Ministerial candidate in Kerala, far outpacing other Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] contenders, including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and K.K. Shailaja, MLA.
Mr. Satheesan responded that the survey did not merit any comment. 'There are scores of such surveys every day', he said.
Mr. Tharoor's post, quoting a survey that claimed increasing voter support for him as Kerala's prospective Chief Minister, arguably came at an inopportune moment for the Congress.
It came at a time when the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) was attempting to douse the so-called 'captain controversy', which erupted after some media outlets hailed Mr. Satheesan as the architect of the Congress' resounding win in the four-cornered Nilambur Assembly bypoll.
The reports elicited a somewhat acerbic comment from Mr. Satheesan's predecessor and senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala who said the media had not accorded him the honorific status of 'a party captain' when the UDF won several critical Assembly bypolls when he was the Leader of the Opposition in the first Pinarayi Vijayan government.
Mr. Tharoor had earlier drawn criticism from within the Congress in Kerala for allegedly contradicting the AICC's positions and the party's official line regarding the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the CPI(M) governments at the Centre and the State, respectively.
Some political quarters sought to portray Mr. Tharoor's views as an indicator of his 'strained relations' with the party's High Command, which they claimed could presage a more serious fallout between the four-time Thiruvananthapuram MP and the AICC.
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