Hours after Congress President Sonia Gandhi told senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor to abide by the decision of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee which has prohibited Congress leaders from attending the seminar to be held in connection with the CPI(M)’s 23rd party congress slated for next month in Kannur, Mr. Tharoor declined the invitation.
In a statement on Monday evening, Mr. Tharoor said he had conveyed his inability to participate, respecting Ms. Gandhi’s views on this matter. He also expressed regret at “unseemly public airing of internal differences,” creating needless controversy in a matter in which the All India Congress Committee’s (AICC) view was binding. The Congress MP also said he had received an invitation to participate in a seminar on the sidelines of the CPI(M) State party conference in Kerala last month. “On that occasion also, I consulted the AICC President and a suitable decision was taken without any media controversy,” Mr. Tharoor added.
Earlier in the day, Ms. Gandhi had met Mr. Tharoor and other Kerala MPs, including Thrissur MP T.N. Prathapan, Mavelikkara MP Kodikunnil Suresh and Chalakudy MP Benny Behanan. Mr. Tharoor, along with senior leaders K.V. Thomas and Mani Shankar Aiyar, has been invited for the CPI(M) national seminar from April 6 to 10.
KPCC’s plea
Kerala Pradesh Congress president K. Sudhakaran on March 19 sent out e-mails to all the leaders concerned urging them to refrain from attending the event. Speaking to reporters on Sunday. Mr. Sudhakaran said, “If any leader takes part in the CPI(M) seminars, they would face action.” He was not present in Delhi and could not attend the meeting with Ms. Gandhi.
Mr. Tharoor’s participation, the MPs said, would be embarrassing for the Congress since they were opposing the CPI(M) government on many fronts, including the latest protests against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s pet project, the K-Rail.
“Principally there may be nothing wrong in Mr. Tharoor’s decision to attend the event. But one has to take into consideration the sentiment of workers who are facing political violence from the CPI(M) on a daily basis,” a senior Congress leader who attended the meeting said. They also pointed out that in the recent Kerala State committee meeting of the CPI(M) the party launched a vitriolic attack on the Congress, going to the extent of exhorting its cadres to work for a “Congress Mukt” Kerala.
Tharoor’s 3 reasons
Mr. Tharoor gave three reasons on why he had welcomed the invite. It was a national event organised by the CPI(M)’s highest forum, the Central Committee, that decided the party’s national policy. “Nationally we have a cooperative relationship with the CPI(M),” he said.
The topic of the seminar did not involve any matter of sensitivity in Kerala, but was on Centre-State relations, where there was no real difference of opinion between the Congress and the CPI(M), Mr. Tharoor said in the statement. He had conveyed the same to Ms. Gandhi at the morning meeting.
“The event sets a fine example of intellectual exchange on policy issues among ‘anti-BJP opposition parties’, which should in principle be encouraged,” Mr. Tharoor wrote.
In the recent months, Mr. Tharoor has been regular target of his colleagues from Kerala. He had earned the ire of the KPCC leadership earlier for appearing to support K-Rail and Mr. Vijayan’s development initiatives. In a clarification later, Mr. Tharoor said his support for the project was not “unqualified” and that he was examining the social, environmental and economic implications of K-Rail.
Unfortunate: CPI(M)
The CPI(M) reacted sharply to the Congress’ decision to stay away from the seminar. “It is quite unfortunate that the Congress in Kerala is playing into the hands of the BJP. It is very unfortunate that just for parochial politicking the regional unit of the party is preventing national leaders like Shashi Tharoor from participating in a seminar on a topic ‘Centre-State relationship’ where the Congress and we are on the same side,” CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member John Brittas said.
