I want Shashi Tharoor to...: Kanhaiya Kumar responds to ‘rift' rumours, tells who to blame for Congress' decline

Mint

3 days ago

Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar, who is likely to play a key role for the grand-old party in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, responded to reports about his senior colleague Shashi Tharoor's "rift" with the party leadership with a three-point answer.
In an interview with the Indian Express, Kanhaiya recalled his time with the Left Party (Communist Party of India) and said if anyone spoke outside the party forum, they were removed.
"They expelled veteran [CPI] leaders such as Somnath Chatterjee, PC Joshi," the NSUI in-charge said.
"But now I am in the Congress and the party has a certain beauty that you can continue to be in the party even if you say anything against the Gandhis. There is that much freedom," the Congress leader said.
Second, he said, Tharoor is a popular leader. "That is why Modiji has sent him [as part of Operation Sindoor delegation] instead of his own leaders," the NSUI in-charge said.
In his point, Kanhaiya Kumar weighed in on the buzz around Tharoor's possible exit from the party. He said it must be Tharoor's decision to leave the party or not, but he wants the senior leader to stay in the Congress.
"... whether he [Tharoor] will leave the party or not is his decision. I would want him to stay. Apart from him, the people who have left, that is their call," Kumar said during the Indian Express' Idea Exchange interview.
Shashi Tharoor faced criticism from within his party, the Congress, for praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his policies on several occasions.
Tharoor had raised eyebrows when he was selected by the central government to lead an all-party delegation on India's Operation Sindoor against Pakistan.
When asked if Congress leader Rahul Gandhi must be blamed for the party's decline, Kanhaiya Kumar said he is "against the politics of faces."
He said the Congress was a party born out of struggles, "it remained in power for a very long time, and due to that, many problems naturally arise in any party."
Kumar said he believes "not being able to convey that message — one with which the Congress was formed and grew — to the grassroots is a very big reason" for the party's decline.
"If that message had continued to reach through action, not speeches, then this situation would not have emerged," the Bihar Congress leader said.
Kumar said he joined the Congress "because of what is right" and one of that "is Rahul Gandhi's integrity."
"Even if speaking the truth leads to immediate electoral loss, it should still be spoken. So when he made a major attack on the BJP at the policy level, whether it was the Rafale issue or the Adani matter, he would speak but many other leaders wouldn't. This situation still exists," Kumar said.
He added, "So it is very important to convey what is being said at the top to the rank-and-file at the grassroots. Seva Dal, Youth Congress, Mahila Congress, NSUI should work as a mass front."
Kanhaiya Kumar, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) incharge of the NSUI and former President of JNU Students' Union, is among those leading the Congress's fight in Bihar Election 2025.