Sorry Shashi Tharoor, Indian politics has failed you

So Congress MP Sashi Tharoor has been disciplined and gagged. Like a dedicated soldier, Tharoor has accepted the decision and has said that the matter is closed. But judging by his past brush-ins with controversies, it looks like this may not be the last in the diplomat-turned-politician's life. 

In a political firmament where name-calling of political adversaries and shameless maneuvering is the order of the day, Tharoor's irreverent humour (remember "cattle-class"?) and candour in taking a stand on policy matters sticks out as a sore thumb. In a way, Tharoor, who once held a top position at the United Nations, is a misfit in India's politics. Unlike many, he doesn't fawn over his leader or abuse his opponents at the drop of his hat, something which is touted as a much-needed acumen to survive in today's politics.

Let us examine the "mistakes" Tharoor made for which he was stripped of the post of spokesperson of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). A string of actions by Tharoor invoked the wrath of the High Command. In a Huffington Post​ editorial this year, Tharoor had said that it would be "churlish" if his party did not take note of Modi's efforts to sound gracious and accommodative and reinvent himself from a "hate figure into an avatar of modernity and progress". So in a way he was asking his party to be aware of Modi's changing strategy, something Congress failed ​to do in the last three years. 

During the US tour of Narendra Modi, Tharoor was there and articulated what he felt about the PM's interaction on many channels. But perhaps the last straw was Tharoor accepting Modi's invitation to be a brand ambassador for the Clean India mission. While it is difficult to comprehend the precise objection in supporting a cleanliness drive, the fact is that the days of bipartisan politics and thinking out-of-the-box have disappeared. Tharoor is only the latest casualty of this, though the problem isn't party specific. Jaswant Singh was shown the doors from the BJP for praising Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Calling Jinnah 'secular', also severely jolted Lal Krishna Advani's political career.

Shashi Tharoor had earlier, as an author, taken several digs at the Nehru-Gandhi family in his book India: From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond. The book had scathing remarks on the Emergency, including calling Sanjay Gandhi, a thug. The Congress party showed maturity in the past by overlooking Tharoor's views and accepting him in the fold. They might have anticipated a regimented soldier who would toe the line of the dynasty to the tee. But clearly, Tharoor's brand of telling things as he sees them, has not gone down well with the party. 

A Congress publication in Kerala tore into Tharoor for writing "love songs" for PM Modi and compared him to "Siberian migratory birds who come looking for optimum climate." Though subdued on Monday, Tharoor​ had expressed his exasperation when the news first broke of the party mulling action against him. He had said that he was being targeted for being an outsider and that there was no scope of nuance in today's politics. This is perhaps true because increasingly, politics is seen through a binary prism of black and white. So political parties and leaders are forced to take positions depending on what their oppositions say. BJP opposed the Indo-US nuclear deal though Atal Bihari Vajpayee had laid the foundation for it during his tenure. Important economic reforms have also been prison to lack of bipartisan support. Rather than looking at the big picture, parties are just looking for the path which will profit them in the short course of time.

There cannot be any legitimate opposition to Tharoor backing the Clean India mission, except the fact that it exposes the insecurity of the Congress party viz-a-viz the growing popularity of Narendra Modi. The grand old party probably thinks that even a routine acknowledgment to Modi's work will further augment his popularity. But in reality, the Congress comes across as petty and still smarting from its crushing defeat this year. One shouldn't forget Tharoor was one of the 44 MPs who managed to win in this election, braving the Modi wave. He survived a hostile opposition who tried to throw muck on him by raking his personal life. However, his own party has now disciplined him just for portraying a sane front and not criticising for the sake of doing so. It is said that people get the leaders they deserve. This is also relevant for our political parties. Rather than erudite leaders with fresh ideas, they are destined to rot with scamsters and sycophants.