Tharoor back in campaign spotlight as Congress signals thaw in Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI) A thaw was visible in Shashi Tharoor's strained ties with Congress leaders in Kerala after his meeting with Rahul Gandhi, with a prominent state leader on Friday naming the Thiruvananthapuram MP a star campaigner for the party-led UDF in the upcoming polls.
Tharoor met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi on Thursday to seek redress for his grievances, after which he said "all is good" and "we are all on the same page", signalling a rapprochement with his party ahead of the crucial Kerala Assembly polls.
"He (Tharoor) will be in the front row of the campaign initiated by the UDF in Kerala for the elections," Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, V D Satheesan, told reporters here in response to a query.
Describing Tharoor as a global citizen and a noted writer, Satheesan said he has a strong connect with the people.
"So, he will be at the forefront of the election campaign. He is also part of the Congress party in Kerala and will be more active in the state because of the elections. For the next two months, he will be here," Satheesan said.
He added that the party is planning to take him to all 140 assembly constituencies in Kerala.
Last week, Tharoor skipped a key Kerala poll strategy meeting amid reported disappointment over being sidelined, with the tipping point said to be Rahul Gandhi not acknowledging him at a Kochi event.
Sources said Gandhi named other senior leaders on stage but did not mention Tharoor, a four-time MP and CWC member, triggering fresh unease.
He also faced criticism last year over remarks on India-Pakistan tensions, though Tharoor has maintained his views align with the party and support bipartisan foreign policy.
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Sangh Parivar still afraid of Mahatma Gandhi: Kerala CM
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi on his 78th death anniversary and claimed that the Sangh Parivar was still afraid of him and his memory and that is why his name was removed from the rural employment guarantee scheme.
Vijayan, in a Facebook post, said that Gandhi was killed because of his uncompromising stance on secularism and his vision of a pluralistic India that embraces diversity and disagreement.
He claimed that the Sangh Parivar was afraid of the memory of the Father of the Nation and hence his name was removed from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
"Why are they still afraid of Gandhiji? The answer is simple. Gandhiji's life and vision are the exact opposite of the politics of hatred and alienation envisioned by the Sangh Parivar," the CM contended.
He further claimed that the Sangh Parivar was trying to remove Gandhi from the lives of the ordinary people.
Vijayan said that unity in diversity was "the foundation stone of the Indian Republic" and everyone should be committed to protecting it from the "totalitarian tendencies that suppress dissent".
He claimed that there were certain forces which were trying to "rewrite history and elevate communal murderers as heroes" in order to lead the country towards totalitarianism.
The Marxist veteran said that Gandhi was "not assassinated by a man named Godse, but by an embodiment of the politics of hatred promoted by the Sangh Parivar" which is still trying to attack and destroy the Constitution and the democratic values of the country.
He said that Gandhi's martyrdom was a constant call for the anti-communal struggle.
Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan too claimed that the Sangh Parivar was afraid of Gandhi.
In his message on Facebook paying tribute to the Father of the Nation, Satheesan said that Sangh Parivar was even afraid of the memories of Gandhi and that is why they were "erasing books and writings" to hide things from people.
He too said that the assassin of Gandhi was not just a man, but an ideology.
Satheesan said that even though the Sangh Parivar shot him down, Gandhi still lives on after his death.
Gandhi, the most prominent face of India's freedom movement, was assassinated by Nathuram Godse on this day in 1948.
