Congress is missing the wood for the trees

The Congress has dropped former minister Shashi Tharoor from the position of party spokesman. This doesn’t come as a huge surprise. For a long time, senior Congress leaders from Kerala,

Mr Tharoor’s home state, have been gunning for him since he is an “outsider” — in the sense of having led a successful life outside politics before he joined the Congress — and had a high public profile on account of his speaking and writing engagements. In established parties, this can, strangely enough, become grounds for rejecting or giving a hard time to a new entrant who otherwise enjoys prominence unless the “outsider” has godfathers. The bitter truth is that no one likes to share turf. It is for this reason that the upbraiding of Mr Tharoor by the Congress leadership is not wholly unexpected.

But that does not mean it is entirely lacking in surprise. What is the party up to, after all? Of all the things that needed to be done to fix things since the Congress’ humbling defeat in May, was the removal of Mr Tharoor from a certain party position of pressing urgency? Or, are we to see this as a roundabout way to protect the articulate former spokesman if the apprehension was that the Kerala unit of the Congress would go for his jugular if he was not even rapped on his knuckles?

This means that he would be permitted to remain the head of the parliamentary standing committee on external affairs, a position in which he can help shape the Congress’ — and the government’s — foreign policy. But none of this is the real point, however. If the Congress had to chastise Mr Tharoor, the party would have carried greater conviction if it had reprimanded him when, early in the day, he spoke of a Narendra Modi 2.0 to indicate that the new Prime Minister was sounding “conciliatory and inclusive” and was seeking to transform himself into “an avatar of modernity and progress”.

On reflection the former UN official may himself find that words were running away with him, and that many may think that the PM from the BJP’s ranks has hardly been inclusive or conciliatory. Disciplinary action against Mr Tharoor at that stage for straightforward ideological reasons is something that could have been understood. But being chastised now for accepting the position of “icon” from the Prime Minister — one among many high-profile personalities from all walks of life — to boost the government’s Clean India campaign surely can’t be a serious infraction.

If the Congress doesn’t come to grips with the reality that it has more serious business to attend to — for a start to begin sounding like a proper Opposition party — it may condemn itself to living in the past.