New Delhi: With its Kerala unit left red-faced following Shashi Tharoor lavishing praise on the Left government’s new industrial policy, the Congress high command Sunday said the Thiruvananthapuram MP’s opinion does not reflect the stand of the party.
On his part, Tharoor defended the piece, saying while he does not believe that the overall industrial climate has changed, “when something good emerges, even if only in one area, it is petty not to acknowledge it”.
But, his explanation did not cut any ice with the leadership of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala. UDF convenor M. M. Hasan slammed Tharoor, saying if he wishes to air views that do not align with that of the Congress or the alliance’s stance, he should have the decency to resign from the Congress Working Committee (CWC).
Tharoor is a member of the CWC, the Congress’s highest decision making forum.
As a political storm raged over Tharoor’s position, first published in the form of an opinion piece in The New Indian Express on Friday, Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh distanced the party from the views expressed by the four-time MP.
“The Indian National Congress is our country’s ONLY political party where there is absolute freedom of speech as well as freedom after speech. Members give their views on issues which are, on occasion, their own and that do not reflect the opinion of the party as a collective entity. It is the party’s stance that is paramount,” Ramesh posted on ‘X’, without mentioning Tharoor or the piece authored by him.
The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), a partner in the UDF, also flayed Tharoor over his article, with its leader P. K. Kunhalikutty saying that Tharoor’s opinion lacked substance and was “unrealistic and baseless”.
Tharoor told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram that the piece did not offer an assessment of the entire economic situation of Kerala. However, he asserted that the broad point that he made that Kerala’s start-up ecosystem has shown a rapid growth in the recent past was grounded in facts.
“I wrote the article based on the Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2024, which stated that Kerala attracted an investment of $ 1.7 billion within 18 months. If anyone challenges the accuracy of this fact, I will relay it to those who published the report,” he said, a view that he also shared on ‘X’.
Tharoor said he was “somewhat bemused” by the raging controversy in Kerala over his article.
He requested people to not form opinions without having read the article which “doesn’t mention party politics, but speaks of things Kerala needs to do to get out of the economic doldrums — changes I have been demanding in the state during all my 16 years in politics”.
Tharoor said he took pride from the fact that the gains under the Left build on initiatives undertaken by former chief minister and the late Congress stalwart, Oommen Chandy.
“The article does not seek to be a survey of the entire Kerala economy, which remains in dire straits, as I have repeatedly pointed out—featuring high unemployment; massive out-migration, especially of educated youth; crisis in agriculture, especially the rubber, cashew, pineapple and rubber sectors; and a record level of debt. There is MUCH more to be done. But when something good emerges, even if only in one area, it is petty not to acknowledge it. I based myself principally on the Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2024, and on the specific facts and figures cited in my article,” Tharoor stated.
Attributing the facts he presented in the article to the the 2024 Global Startup Ecosystem Report, Tharoor had written that Kerala has forged a startup ecosystem that, at the end of an 18-month period last year, was valued at a whopping $ 1.7 billion, five times more than the global average during this same period.
“That this transformation has begun to occur under a Communist-led LDF government seems astonishing, but it is not entirely surprising. The Communists in Kerala, like their counterparts in West Bengal at the beginning of the century, understood that the path to growth and prosperity for their people lies in capitalism, entrepreneurship, and initiative, not in red flags, strikes, and agitations,” he wrote in the piece.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: How Kharge & Rahul’s ‘Jai Samvidhan’ rally became more about holy dips in Ganga, slavery & sins
