The Exile Within

The Congress’ ongoing friction with Shashi Tharoor proves once again that the greatest talent of India’s grand old party lies in political self-harm.

Kerala

Few political parties in the world are as accomplished at wasting talent as the Congress. Time and again, it has demonstrated a remarkable ability to alienate precisely those figures who might have rescued it from irrelevance. The most self-inflicted episode arguably centres on former diplomat, author, MP and one its brightest faces - Shashi Tharoor.

Inconveniently for the party, Tharoor has increasingly become a reminder of everything the Congress no longer is.

His recent absence from a recent high-level brainstorming session on Kerala’s upcoming elections disconcerted the party top brass while spurring frenzied speculation once more about where Tharoor might be heading.

The meeting, chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, was meant to signal preparedness for a state election the party believes it can win. Instead, it exposed the rot beneath the surface. Tharoor not only stayed away but openly acknowledged that he has “issues” with the party and that media reports about his unhappiness were “partly correct.”

The leadership now proposes to “invite” Tharoor for talks, as though he were an errant district secretary rather than one of the party’s few remaining national assets. Tharoor has electoral pull in Kerala, credibility with the middle class, and a public stature Congress sorely lacks.

Tharoor is faulted for his intellectual independence, for occasionally praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi where praise is due, and for refusing to mouth the party line with sufficient fury. In today’s Congress led by Gandhi and Kharge, any deviation is treated as heresy. Loyalty is measured not by service or success but by proximity to the high command.

The backdrop to this farce is a party whose central leadership remains frozen in time. Rahul Gandhi, despite years of electoral failure, continues to preside over Congress as its moral compass and strategic brain. That a leader who has repeatedly failed to expand the party’s footprint cannot find space or the grace for someone of Tharoor’s calibre speaks volumes. It takes a special kind of political obtuseness to marginalise a man who enhances the party’s seriousness simply by entering the room.

The result is predictable. Rumours swirl of Tharoor being courted by rivals. The CPM, ever pragmatic, has reportedly explored channels of communication, even floating the idea of accommodation within the Left Democratic Front. The BJP, less subtle, has made its pitch in public. None of this should surprise Congress. When a party publicly humiliates its own stars, others will happily offer them respect.

While Tharoor has denied claims of clandestine meetings (in Dubai) and insists he remains a Congressman, loyalty has limits, especially when it is met with systematic sidelining. Being snubbed at public events, excluded from strategy sessions, and whispered about by organisational mediocrities is not a test of commitment; it is an invitation to leave.

Kerala, often cited as Congress’s last redoubt of internal democracy, now mirrors the dysfunction of the centre. The party’s brief flirtation with unity, symbolised by Tharoor’s participation in recent events, has given way to old insecurities. The Congress seems incapable of sustaining détente with anyone who does not fit neatly into its dynastic hierarchy.

The tragedy is not merely personal but structural and institutional. The Congress desperately needs leaders who can speak to aspirational India, who can match the BJP intellectually rather than just morally, and who can project confidence rather than nostalgia. While Tharoor obviously fits that bill, the party has long treated his independence as a problem rather than a solution.

In politics, decline is rarely caused by enemies alone. More often, it is hastened by arrogance, fear of talent and an inability to recognise value unless it comes wrapped in pedigree. By alienating Shashi Tharoor and favouring those who slavishly toe the party line, the Congress once again proves that its most formidable opponent is itself and that no amount of brainstorming can compensate for a thick-headed leadership that cannot recognise its own gems who shine in plain sight.