Shashi Tharoor criticises Kerala government's ‘misplaced generosity' in sending Turkey aid in 2023
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday alleged that the Kerala government displayed 'misplaced generosity' by giving financial aid to earthquake-hit Turkey in 2023. His remark led to sharp responses from leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the ruling party in Kerala.
Tharoor's comments came in the backdrop of Ankara's support for Islamabad during heightened tensions between India and Pakistan, and amid reports that Pakistan used Turkish-made drones during the conflict.
The Congress MP on Friday referred to a report noting that the Kerala government had sanctioned Rs 10 crore as financial assistance to Turkey after the 2023 earthquake and said: 'I hope the Govt of Kerala reflects on its misplaced generosity, after seeing Turkey's behaviour two years later. Not to mention that the people of Wayanad [just to take one Kerala example] could have used those ten crores far better.'
Tharoor was referring to a series of landslides triggered by heavy rains in Wayanad in July 2024, which left over 400 dead. The landslides took place a year-and-a-half after the earthquake in Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023, which killed over 50,000 persons and injured over 1.2 lakh.
I hope the Govt of Kerala reflects on its misplaced generosity, after seeing Turkey's behaviour two years later! https://t.co/NSaZij9eaE
Not to mention that the people of Wayanad (just to take one Kerala example) could have used those ten crores far better....
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 23, 2025
Responding to Tharoor's remark, Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP John Brittas said that while he had great regard for the Congress MP, his comments were symptoms of 'selective amnesia'.
'It is as amusing [and] puzzling why he had to belittle Kerala when he knows very well the Modi govt itself had launched Operation Dost to help Turkey,' Brittas said. 'Kerala bashing is unwarranted.'
Under Operation Dost, the Indian government had sent relief material worth over Rs 7 crore to Turkey and Syria. India had also sent three teams of the National Disaster Response Force to Turkey, as well as personnel and equipment to set up a field hospital.
Hve great regards for Shashi Tharoor. But these comments are symptoms of selective amnesia. It is as amusing n puzzling why he had to belittle Kerala when he knows very well the Modi govt itself had launched Operation Dost to help Turkey. Kerala bashing is unwarranted. https://t.co/JgWvCHnUM2
— John Brittas (@JohnBrittas) May 24, 2025
In response to Tharoor's criticism of the Kerala government, state Finance Minister and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader KN Balagopal also said that the financial assistance to Turkey was not a case of misplaced generosity, The Indian Express reported.
'At the time of a major disaster, we had to take a humane approach,' Balagopal said. 'The aid was handed over to Turkey through the Indian Ministry of External Affairs [MEA]. It is wrong to club that gesture of 2023 with the border crisis of 2025.'
Amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, Tharoor is leading a delegation of MPs to the United States, Brazil and several other countries to put forward New Delhi's stand on the conflict. Brittas is also part of a delegation headed to Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
24 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Trump-backed tax bill aims to undo Obama and Biden policy milestones
Chiseling away at President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. Rolling back the green energy tax breaks from President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act. At its core, the Republican big, beautiful bill is more than just an extension of tax breaks approved during President Donald Trump's first term at the White House. The package is an attempt by Republicans to undo, little by little, the signature domestic achievements of the past two Democratic presidents. We're going to do what we said we were going to do, Speaker Mike Johnson said after House passage last month. While the aim of the sprawling 1,000-page plus bill is to preserve an estimated USD 4.5 trillion in tax cuts that would otherwise expire at year's end if Congress fails to act and add some new ones, including no taxes on tips the spending cuts pointed at the Democratic-led programmes are causing the most political turmoil. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said this week that 10.9 million fewer people would have health insurance under the GOP bill, including 1.4 million immigrants in the US without legal status who are in state-funded programs. At the same time, lawmakers are being hounded by businesses in states across the nation who rely on the green energy tax breaks for their projects. As the package moves from the House to the Senate, the simmering unrest over curbing the Obama and Biden policies shows just how politically difficult it can be to slash government programmes once they become part of civic life. "When he asked me, what do you think the prospects are for passage in the Senate? I said, good if we don't cut Medicaid," said Sen Josh Hawley, R-Mo, recounting his conversation last week with Trump. And he said, I'm 100 per cent supportive of that. Health care worries Not a single Republican in Congress voted for the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, in 2010, or Biden's inflation act in 2022. Both were approved using the same budget reconciliation process now being employed by Republicans to steamroll Trump's bill past the opposition. Even still, sizable coalitions of GOP lawmakers are forming to protect aspects of both of those programs as they ripple into the lives of millions of Americans. Hawley, Sen Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and others are wary of changes to Medicaid and other provisions in the bill that would result in fewer people being able to access health care programs. At the same time, crossover groupings of House and Senate Republicans have launched an aggressive campaign to preserve, at least for some time, the green energy tax breaks that business interests in their states are relying on to develop solar, wind and other types of energy production. Murkowski said one area she's "worried about is the House bill's provision that any project not under construction within 60 days of the bill becoming law may no longer be eligible for those credits. These are some of the things we're working on, she said. The concerns are running in sometimes opposite directions and complicating the work of GOP leaders who have almost no votes to spare in the House and Senate as they try to hoist the package over Democratic opposition and onto the president's desk by the Fourth of July. While some Republicans are working to preserve the programs from cuts, the budget hawks want steeper reductions to stem the nation's debt load. The CBO said the package would add $2.4 trillion to deficits over the decade. After a robust private meeting with Trump at the White House this week, Republican senators said they were working to keep the bill on track as they amend it for their own priorities. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the president made the pitch and the argument for why we need to get the bill done." The disconnect is reminiscent of Trump's first term, when Republicans promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, only to see their effort collapse in dramatic fashion when the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, voted thumbs down for the bill on the House floor. Battle over Medicaid In the 15 years since Obamacare became law, access to health care has grown substantially. Some 80 million people are now enrolled in Medicaid, and the Kaiser Family Foundation reports 41 states have opted to expand their coverage. The Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid to all adults with incomes up to about USD 21,500 for an individual, or almost USD 29,000 for a two-person household. While Republicans no longer campaign on ending Obamacare, advocates warn that the changes proposed in the big bill will trim back at access to health care. The bill proposes new 80 hours of monthly work or community service requirements for able-bodied Medicaid recipients, age 18 to 64, with some exceptions. It also imposes twice-a-year eligibility verification checks and other changes. Republicans argue that they want to right-size Medicaid to root out waste, fraud and abuse and ensure it's there for those who need it most, often citing women and children. Medicaid was built to be a temporary safety net for people who genuinely need it young, pregnant women, single mothers, the disabled, the elderly, Johnson told The Associated Press. But when when they expanded under Obamacare, it not only thwarted the purpose of the program, it started draining resources. Initially, the House bill proposed starting the work requirements in January 2029, as Trump's term in the White House would be coming to a close. But conservatives from the House Freedom Caucus negotiated for a quicker start date, in December 2026, to start the spending reductions sooner. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has said the changes are an Obamacare rollback by another name. It decimates our health care system, decimates our clean energy system, Schumer of New York said in an interview with the AP. The green energy tax breaks involve not only those used by buyers of electric vehicles, like Elon Musk's Tesla line, but also the production and investment tax credits for developers of renewables and other energy sources. The House bill had initially proposed a phaseout of those credits over the next several years. But again the conservative Freedom Caucus engineered the faster wind-down within 60 days of the bill's passage. Not a single Republican voted for the Green New Scam subsidies, wrote Sen Mike Lee, R-Utah, on social media. Not a single Republican should vote to keep them.
Hindustan Times
24 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
‘Straight out of Soros playbook': BJP slams Rahul Gandhi's ‘match-fixing' remark over Maharashtra polls
Amid the ongoing controversy over Rahul Gandhi's 'match-fixing' remark on Maharashtra election results, BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya accused the Congress of deliberately undermining public trust in India's democratic institutions, a move he likened to tactics allegedly associated with billionaire George Soros. Malviya's remarks, which were posted on X, came in response to Rahul Gandhi's latest criticisms of the electoral process with respect to last year's Maharashtra Assembly Election and the upcoming Bihar polls. "When Congress wins — be it in Telangana or Karnataka — the same system is hailed as fair and just. But when they lose — from Haryana to Maharashtra — the whining and conspiracy theories begin, without fail. This is straight out of George Soros' playbook — systematically erode people's faith in their own institutions, so they can be cracked open from within for political gains. India's democracy is strong. Its institutions are resilient. And the Indian voter is wise. No amount of manipulation will change that," Malviya posted on X. On Saturday, Rahul Gandhi claimed that the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections were a "blueprint for rigging democracy" and questioned the integrity of voter lists. Rahul Gandhi claimed in a newspaper article. Slamming Gandhi for his remarks, Malviya also questioned the consistency of the Congress party's stance on electoral fairness. "It is not that Rahul Gandhi doesn't understand how the electoral process works. He does very well. But his goal is not clarity, it is chaos. His repeated attempts to sow seeds of doubt and dissension in the minds of voters about our institutional processes are deliberate," Malviya's post added. In response to the allegation made by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi regarding the Maharashtra election, the Election Commission described it as "unsubstantiated allegations." "Unsubstantiated allegations raised against the Electoral Rolls of Maharashtra are an affront to the rule of law. The Election Commission brought out all these facts in its reply to the INC on 24th December 2024 itself, which is available on ECI's website. It appears that all these facts are completely being ignored while raising such issues again and again," the ECI statement read.
Hindustan Times
24 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Bharat Mata portrait row: CPI hoists national flag, plants saplings
Thrissur , CPI, the second-largest partner in the ruling LDF in Kerala, on Saturday hoisted the national flag and planted saplings as a mark of protest against the usage of the Bharat Mata portrait at an Environment Day event in the Raj Bhavan. State Agriculture Minister and CPI leader P Prasad had boycotted the event at the Raj Bhavan on June 5 over the use of the portrait, citing that it was the one used by the RSS. The Left party had announced that it would hoist the national flag, which is the symbol of Bharat Mata, at all its branches on Saturday and would plant saplings as a mark of protest against the Raj Bhavan's action. CPI state secretary Binoy Viswam hoisted the flag and planted the sapling at the party district office in Thrissur on Saturday morning. State Revenue Minister P Rajan and senior leader and former minister V S Sunil Kumar were among those who were present during the protest event. After the event, Viswam sought to know whether the Constitution of the country or the policies of the RSS were important for Governor Vishwanath Rajendra Arlekar. "This flag is the Bharat Mata. There is no Bharat Mata other than this," he said, hoisting the national flag. Apparently criticising the Governor, he said any attempt to impose another concept of Bharat Mata is "unconstitutional" and "anti-national". CPI leaders and workers gathered and raised "Bharat Mata ki jai" slogan also. Meanwhile, CPI state secretary M V Govindan rejected reporters' question about whether the ruling party was not keen to criticise the Governor in the matter like its front partner CPI. "Raj Bhavan should not be used as a venue to propagate communal ideologies. No symbol that propagates communal ideologies should be displayed at a public place like Raj Bhavan. That is our stand," he said. He also said he himself appreciated Agriculture Minister Prasad when he had boycotted the Raj Bhavan event over the portrait issue. The Left government in Kerala on Friday made it clear that it was not in agreement with the use of the Bharat Mata portrait at the Environment Day event at the Raj Bhavan here, as the picture was not authorised as the official version by the Constitution or the Indian government. Minister Prasad, who had boycotted the event, said on Friday that those in constitutional offices cannot convert government programmes into political events. A similar view was also expressed by state General Education Minister V Sivankutty, who said that the Raj Bhavan and the Governor were above politics and said that Arlekar should withdraw from the stand taken by him. As the incident triggered a row, the Governor had issued a statement saying that "Whatever be the pressure, from whichever quarters, there will be no compromise whatsoever on Bharat Mata."
