Shashi Tharoor’s peccadilloes

By O.J.George
Shashi Tharoor is a tragic hero these days for his off the cuff comments, some of which have irked the Congress high command.

That Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan categorically repudiated Tharoor’s remarks underscores the alacrity with which the party high command reacts against undesirable practices.

For the Congress high command, personalities do not matter when it comes to it being hit below the belt. Raja Natwar Singh was its poster boy on matters of external affairs. Now he is languishing in obscurity, after being dumped by the high command.

And look at the way a new cabinet minister for external affairs was chosen this time. S M Krishna himself might not have thought that he would become a minister for external affairs.

The ease with which coronation and condemnation come to the high command should be observed by Shashi Tharoor in right earnest.

There are a lot of practising politicians around who were not happy with Shashi Tharoor’s candidature in Thiruvananthapuram. They are lying low for an opportune moment to strike back.

Shashi Tharoor has apologized for his goof-up about the cattle class. He says actually meant airlines and not low-class people. At the same time, his secretary has published a lot of Twitter comments supporting Shashi Tharoor.

Some people think that Shashi Tharoor is a stooge of the US, planted on Indian soil to do their bidding. But the same US had exercised its veto against his becoming the UN Secretary-General. When it comes to matters of grandeur, they have their own formula, and people like Shashi Tharoor would be down in the dumps.

India has come to his help, and rather mollycoddled him, for not making swipes at its coolie class of people who propel him at the hustings.

His connection with diplomatic people like Shahryar Khan in writing common cricket book or Niaz Naik in propagating backdoor diplomacy would not help him retain his seat here.

Recently, Niaz Naik, a bachelor, was done to death allegedly by terrorists for his hobnobbing with Indians. His stinking body was found only after a few days of his death. Pakistan does not take kindly to its definition of wayward behaviour.

Let Shashi Tharoor dispense with flamboyance and restrict himself to quiet diplomacy, functioning from his official residence, even if renovation is not completed, and not from five-star hotels which are vulnerable in many ways for an external affairs minister.