Absurd, silly, says Venkaiah Naidu on Shashi Tharoor's removal as Cong spokesperson

Reacting to the Congress party removing Shashi Tharoor as party spokesperson, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Venkaiah Naidu said that it was absurd and silly.

ANI quoted Naidu as saying, “It’s absurd and silly. What is the sin committed by Tharoor ji? Swachh Bharat is not a political campaign.”

Meanwhile Tharoor accepted the party decision saying he was a loyal Congress worker. NDTV quoted Tharoor as saying, “As a loyal Congress worker I humbly accept party president Sonia Gandhi’s decision.”

The Congress removed Tharoor as one of its party spokesmen, following rising dissent from the  Kerala Congress over his acceptance of PM Narendra Modi’s invitation to be a part of his ‘Clean India’ campaign.

According to CNN-IBN reports, the recommendation to sack Tharoor as spokesperson was made by the party’s disciplinary panel based on a report from the Kerala unit, which had been running a concerted campaign against Tharoor. The report added that party president Sonia Gandhi had accepted the Kerala Congress’ demand.

On Saturday, while declining to make any comment on the possible action against Tharoor based on the report, KPCC president VM Sudheeran had said it had been referred to the AICC’s disciplinary panel.

“It would not be proper on my part to comment on the outcome since the report is now under AICC’s consideration,” he had told reporters.

Taking strong exception to what they alleged to be his praise of Modi and his initiatives like the Swachh Bharat campaign, the Congress in Kerala had sought ‘appropriate action’ by the high command against Tharoor.

The report held that Tharoor’s adulatory statements about Modi had hurt Congress workers in Kerala, who had worked sincerely and tirelessly for his victory for his victory from the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat.

Tharoor had reacted sarcastically to the move saying this would mean the state leadership would finally read what he actually wrote instead of simply opting for oral summaries.

He had consistently rejected suggestions that he was moving closer to the BJP by asserting that he was a “proud Congressman” and never endorsed the “Hindutva agenda” of the BJP.

Tharoor had said his response to Modi’s call to support the “Swachh Bharat” campaign did not mean that he even remotely endorsed the BJP’s “core Hindutva” agenda and that he continued to be a “proud Congressman”.

“I am astonished that anyone would suggest that I am pro- BJP. I have a 30-year paper trail of published writings on my idea of India and my profound belief in India’s pluralism,” Tharoor, a minister in the previous UPA government and the second term MP from Thiruvananthapuram, had said in a Facebook comment.

“Being receptive to specific statements or actions of BJP leaders does not remotely imply acceptance of the party’s core Hindutva agenda. The PM pitched his appeal as a non-political one and I received it in that spirit. I am a proud Congressman and a proud Indian. In short, not pro-BJP, just pro-India,” the former UN diplomat had said.

Tharoor had responded positively to Modi’s invitation to join the ambitious Swachh Bharat campaign but wanted it to be a sustained programme instead of being “tokenism”.

Responding to Modi’s call, Tharoor had last week said he was honoured to accept the invitation to join the ‘Clean India campaign’.

Tharoor, who had praised Modi on a couple of occasions earlier, however, had added that he was not a fan of tokenism and the challenge would be to sustain it beyond a week of ‘photo ops’.

Modi has invited nine persons, including Tharoor, to join in the Swachh Bharat campaign on the model of the ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’.

With agency inputs