The Aryavarth Express
New Delhi, December 1: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday clarified that his absence from the party’s strategic group meeting held on Sunday was not deliberate, stating that he was on a flight returning from Kerala at the time.
“I did not skip it; I was on a plane coming from Kerala,” the Lok Sabha MP told reporters, addressing speculation over his absence from the meeting chaired by Sonia Gandhi to plan the Congress strategy for the Winter Session.
Tharoor had also missed an earlier Congress meeting on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists, citing illness. His office said he was travelling with his 90-year-old mother on a later flight from Kerala, making it impossible for him to reach Delhi in time. Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal was similarly unable to attend due to commitments related to local body elections in Kerala.
However, Tharoor’s repeated absence from key internal deliberations has sparked discussion within the party. His presence at a government function addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi a day after he skipped the SIR meeting raised further eyebrows among party leaders.
The controversy has been compounded by Tharoor’s earlier social media posts praising the Prime Minister, which drew criticism from within the Congress. Party leader Sandeep Dixit questioned Tharoor’s stance, suggesting that if he found BJP policies more appealing than those of his own party, he should clarify his position. “If you are not giving an explanation, you are a hypocrite,” Dixit remarked.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate also weighed in, stating that she found nothing in the Prime Minister’s speech worth commending. She questioned why Tharoor chose to praise a speech in which the PM also criticised the Congress.
Tharoor’s intermittent absence from crucial party meetings, along with his occasional positive comments about PM Modi, has once again highlighted the complexities of his relationship with the Congress leadership.
