Past catches up fast with Tharoor

Shashi Tharoor thinks his writing is the first casualty of his running to parliament. Some of his writings, however, could take a toll on his electoral prospects. While the BJP quotes from a book, in which the Congress candidate criticises the Nehru-Gandhi clan, Muslim groups are angry about a syndicated article which appeared in Israeli daily Haaretz in January.

The article, titled India’s Israel Envy, reads: “As Israeli planes and tanks were exacting a heavy toll on Gaza, India’s leaders and strategic thinkers were watching with an unusual degree of interest — and some empathy.”

In the article written in the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Tharoor draws parallels between India and Israel. He argues that international diplomacy is the only route available to India, unlike Israel.

“For many Indians, the temptation to identify with Israel was strengthened by the terrorists’ seizure of the Chabad (Nariman) House, and the painful awareness that India and Israel share many of the same enemies. India, with its 150 million Muslims, has long been a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, and remains strongly committed to an independent Palestinian state. But the Mumbai attacks confirmed what has become apparent in recent years: The forces of global Islamist terror have added Indians to their target list of reviled “Jews and crusaders.”

The article is enough to alienate a section of Muslim voters from Tharoor, facing stiff competition from at least three candidates in Thiruvananthapuram.

Tharoor replies: “I wrote that article to say why India should not follow Israel’s path. It is regrettable to turn the article on its head.”

In his 1997 book – India: From Midnight to the Millennium – Tharoor elaborates the “pedigree” politics of his present party. Tharoor, who says “the Emergency was the seminal event of his political maturation”, goes on to describe the “despotic” Indira Gandhi, the “thuggish” Sanjay and the “imperious” Rajiv. As an expat in New York, he read reports of “a state that could seize them (the multitudes)… and cart them off to…sterilisation camps” and was dismayed when “a 40-year-old pilot with no experience of government” was chosen as Indira’s successor. His (Rajiv’s) genes justified their (Congress leaders’) ends, he writes.