Congress' harakiri over Centre picking Tharoor for delegations abroad

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to send delegations comprising leaders from across the political spectrum to various countries “to project India’s national consensus and resolute approach to combating terrorism” in the wake of Operation Sindoor, he was essentially borrowing from the playbook of previous Congress-led regimes. As such, the Centre’s decision should have afforded the principal opposition party a chance to gloat.

True to its style, however, the Congress high command has been left embarrassed by its inability to look beyond the cliques it has actively propped up within the party.

Rahul faces criticism

A section of party leaders believes that the names of MPs sent by Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, to parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju as Congress nominees for the delegations reeks of “pettiness” and “blunts the counter-offensive that we were working on to question the government on various aspects linked with the Pahalgam terror attack and the abrupt ceasefire announcement following Operation Sindoor”.

Also Read: Growing rift? Tharoor not on the list Congress gave for delegation abroad

Late on Thursday (May 15), the Centre started tapping MPs and leaders cutting across political lines to join the “all-party delegations” Modi planned to send to clusters of countries across different continents, tentatively beginning on May 23.

Centre’s mind

Among leaders of the Congress who Rijiju reached out to were former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid and Lok Sabha MPs Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari. Sources said both Tharoor and Tewari had readily accepted the Centre’s offer. Khurshid, it is learnt, informed Rijiju that he too would be happy to join the delegation but also told the minister that the final decision on who the Congress wishes to nominate should be taken by party president Mallikarjun Kharge.

According to Congress communications department chief Rijiju reached out to Kharge and Gandhi on Friday morning, asking them to “submit names of four MPs for the delegations to be sent abroad to explain India’s stance on terrorism from Pakistan”.

Congress confusion

By now, news of the Centre having already contacted Tharoor, Khurshid and Tewari for the delegations had been widely circulated. Congress insiders say while Modi’s decision to dispatch all-party delegations to make India’s case abroad – previously done in 1994 and 2008 by Congress prime ministers Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh, respectively – was a bipartisan one, the manner in which the Centre went about executing it was “high on politics” and that the Congress “failed miserably to respond to it adroitly”.

“The names of who the Centre was tapping from the Congress had already been leaked to the press and these leaders had even confirmed it to the media. The party should have responded by saying that while in national interest it is all for such delegations, it feels that these delegations should be sent after the Centre concedes to the Opposition’s demands for the PM to chair an all-party meeting on Operation Sindoor and convenes a special session of Parliament to discuss issues related to the Pahalgam attack as well as Operation Sindoor and the ceasefire,” a senior Rajya Sabha MP of the Congress told The Federal.

Fissures in Congress

This MP added, “The party could have said it was essential that these demands are met before the delegations are dispatched since the PM needs to take all parties into confidence about the events of the past three weeks before our MPs present India’s views at a global stage. Unfortunately, instead of doing this, we fell for the BJP’s tricks and our response has been based more on internal party politics than on exposing the BJP”.

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The MP was alluding to the avoidable political circus that Ramesh kicked up on Saturday morning well after the Centre had officially declared names of MPs who would be heading the seven all-party delegations going abroad. The delegations, as per a government press release issued at 9.19AM, will be headed by Tharoor, BJP MPs Ravi Shankar Prasad and Baijayant Panda, JD-U’s Sanjay Kumar Jha, DMK’s K. Kanimozhi, NCP-SP’s Supriya Sule and the Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Eknath Shinde. Tharoor’s name, interestingly, tops the list of leaders named in the press release.

Congress goes public

At 10.09 am, Ramesh posted on X the names Gandhi had forwarded to Rijiju as nominees from the Congress for the delegations. These included former Union minister Anand Sharma and party MPs Gaurav Gogoi, Amarinder Singh Raja Brar and Syed Naseer Hussain. Tharoor’s name, it was clear, had not been proposed by the Congress despite the Thiruvananthapuram MP’s past innings as an accomplished career diplomat.

Divided Congress

“When the Centre had already made Tharoor’s name pubic, what was the need for Jairam to go public with names we had recommended. Whether we like it or not, Tharoor has a certain standing on the global stage as well as in India when it comes to matters of diplomacy. Not one name suggested by our leadership, including senior leader Anand Sharma, comes close to his expertise. What have we gained by making it public that we did not want to send Tharoor? It makes a laughing stock of us and the BJP is enjoying the show; there leaders are accusing us of being petty and I have to admit that they are not wrong,” an AICC functionary said.

A Congress Working Committee member told The Federal, “It is known to everyone that Tharoor and the Congress leadership don’t see eye to eye on most things. He regularly takes a public stand contrary to the party line on critical issues, including our position on all that has happened in recent weeks, starting with the Pahalgam attack and then (US President) Donald Trump’s supposed role in brokering the ceasefire between India and Pakistan. Even at the informal CWC meet, Tharoor was called out for breaking with the party line on the ceasefire issue. Given this history, it was obvious that Tharoor would not have been the party’s choice for such a delegation but then the way we have handled it is ridiculous. Once the Centre had made his name public, we should have just kept quiet.”

Others flay Congress

Predictably, brickbats for the Congress have come flying thick and fast. Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora was among the first political leaders to respond to Ramesh’s post on X. “Unfortunate that Congress is holding back its most experienced MPs from participating. These delegations represent India, not political ego,” Deora, once a Congress MP and minister in the UPA-II government, posted on X, while scores of other political leaders, commentators and common citizens alike echoed similar views.

Also Read: Tharoor on Indo-Pak conflict: Spoke as proud Indian, not as Congress spokesperson

Many have even wondered if the Congress’s decision to exclude Tharoor was a punishment for him not following Gandhi’s cue on party matters and for taking on Kharge in the Congress’s presidential elections in 2022 or a sign of his imminent departure from the Grand Old Party ahead of next year’s Kerala assembly polls. That Tharoor has been weighing on a possibly political future outside the Congress – most likely with the BJP – has been a subject of heady political gossip for months.

Tharoor versus others

A Lok Sabha Congress MP from Kerala, Tharoor’s home state, told The Federal, “it is not just that we have publicly expressed lack of confidence in Tharoor that is problematic; naturally people will ask if we are trying to push him out of the party... what is also troubling is who all we have chosen instead of the names that had been leaked by the Centre two days back; what was wrong in nominating Salman Khurshid and Manish Tewari; both of them have excellent credentials to represent India in such delegations. What do Naseer, Gogoi or Raja Brar bring to the table; Gogoi and Raja Brar are close to Rahul or because Naseer was secretary to the Congress president doesn’t make them good choices for such a role (sic).”