The Kerala unit of the Congress instantly gets a headache when Shashi Tharoor lets loose one of his observations showering flowers on enemy territory.
With every such action triggering controversy within a nervous Congress party, some feel it is high time Tharoor showed a degree of solidarity with the ideals of his party, notes Shyam G Menon.
It was a lot of hoo-ha over nothing.
On February 14, 2025, author, former Union minister and the sitting MP from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor, wrote an article in The New Indian Express newspaper, in which he highlighted the growth in Kerala's start-up ecosystem as enunciated by a private research report.
'According to the 2024 Global Startup Ecosystem Report, which analyzed data from over 4.5 million companies, across 300-plus entrepreneurial innovation ecosystems, Kerala has forged a startup ecosystem that, at the end of an 18 month-period last year, was worth a whopping $1.7 billion, five times more than the average during this same period,
'Between July 1, 2021 and December 31, 2023, while the worldwide average growth was 46 per cent, Kerala recorded a staggering 254 percent compound annual growth rate: a phenomenal feat' -- this was the core issue around which, the rest of Tharoor's article was composed.
There was a problem here and it was a political one. Since May 2016, Kerala had been under a Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, led by the Communist Party of India- Marxist.
What the data in the report showed was growth under the LDF government. Tharoor belongs to the Congress party, which heads the United Democratic Front (UDF), currently in Opposition in the state.
Even with the cash rich Bharatiya Janata Party present in Kerala and hungry to grow its presence in the state, the LDF and the UDF have remained arch rivals at the hustings.
To complicate matters, Tharoor noted Kerala's Industries Minister P Rajeev mentioning that the state had significantly improved its position on the ease of doing business index and it was possible to open a business now, in two minutes.
A new industrial policy with emphasis on knowledge-based industries has been implemented.
Under the state's 'Year of Enterprises' initiative, over 290,000 MSMEs have been established.
The Congress MP tempered his remarks by observing that the state may still require an Investor Protection Act, have to update laws, slash regulations and make government processes more efficient.
'That this transformation has begun to occur under a communist-led LDF government seems astonishing, but it is not entirely surprising,' Tharoor said pointing out, the communists have understood that 'the path to growth and prosperity for their people lies in capitalism, entrepreneurship, and initiative, not in red flags, strikes, and agitations.'
He further noted that there is the perception that the communists behave so when they are in power and when not -- for instance, if they lose the next round of assembly elections -= they revert to their old ways.
Tharoor hoped that wouldn't be the case, as when it comes to the general interests of the state, all parties must pull together.
The Congress MP's praise for the LDF government was quickly picked up by the Communists and their media machinery lost no time advertising it.
According to reports, the CPI-M's mouth piece, the Malayalam daily Deshabhimani, published a Malayalam version of Tharoor's article while the party's social media handles circulated Tharoor's words.
A furious Congress cracked the whip. Its state president, V D Satheesan said the LDF government was actually in an economic rut.
The state government has been under a lot of financial strain. He pointed out that if one went with the government's argument of three lakh new industrial innovations established recently and assumed each of these industries invested one lakh rupees, then the industrial sector in the state should register a growth of Rs 30,000 crore.
'However, as per the statistics, the GDP contribution of the state has been stagnant at 3.8% in recent years,' Satheesan was quoted as saying in The New Indian Express dated February 18.
Faced with criticism from his party, Tharoor stuck to his guns initially but his position appeared restrained after he was spoken to by the party's senior leadership at both the state and central level.
In a couple of days, the Congress itself sought to play down the issue calling it settled and over with.
On February 19, an article by V R Pratap, in onmanorama.com pointed out that the 2024 Global Startup Ecosystem Report in its take on Kerala, had findings that were 'far removed from reality'.
According to it, the startup ecosystem report mentioned of the state government setting aside Rs 58.50 crore in the budget for startups to augment technological facilities and investments.
But this amount was later reduced to Rs 20.47 crore. The cash-strapped state government also dropped various schemes of the industries department, totaling to Rs 694 crore.
Similarly, as per this report, the Global Startup Ecosystem Report cited Kerala declaring Internet access a fundamental right along with the ambitious K-Fone project that promised free Internet connections to 20 lakh households.
The report in onmanorama.com, said the K-Fon project was stuck and as yet only 50,000 households had got their Internet connections.
The Global Startup Ecosystem Report's suggestion that Kerala achieved 254 per cent growth in the sector between 2021 and 2023 has also been questioned because the years for comparison therein would be from the COVID-19 period when industry was generally down.
Interestingly, the onmanorama.com report on the flaws in the Global Startup Ecosystem Report, said that the state's Startup Mission has denied providing any data.
In the days since Tharoor's article and the discomfort it caused within the state Congress unit, not all of the party's leaders were critical of the MP's views.
Within the Congress, there were remarks of Tharoor being a senior politician and a knowledgeable person with a wide following, who was entitled to his views on various matters.
He deserved to be heard. By February 20, even Satheesan seemed to have toned down his remarks.
That day, Mathrubhumi's English Web site quoted Satheesan as saying: 'I have no intention of engaging in a duel or argument with Tharoor. When Tharoor wrote an article in favor of the government on a subject under discussion, I said that the figures presented in that article were incorrect and it was proven so.'
He further added, 'Tharoor is a member of Congress's Working Committee. It is the national leadership of Congress that should speak to him. We stand much below and have no authority to reprimand, correct or advise him.'
I have never spoken to Tharoor. Till 2024, I had seen him from a distance. The first time I saw Tharoor at close quarters was at Peroorkada in Thiruvananthapuram, on the final day of campaigning for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
At that jam-packed junction with people out to witness the last moments of campaigning by all the three main candidates in the field, I found myself right next to Tharoor's vehicle as it drove in.
Amidst waving to people at large, he looked down, saw me and waved at me as though we were pals of many years standing.
The next second, he was waving to someone else similarly. It is what candidates do.
Earlier in that Lok Sabha campaign period, I was standing by the roadside at Pattom in the city when Rajeev Chandrasekhar of the BJP, passing by in a campaign vehicle, gave me a serious, respectful namaste, which shook me out of my self-conferred youth and landed me in the reality of being not far from 60.
After Peroorkada, the next time I saw Tharoor was at a literary festival in Kerala's capital city in 2025, where he engaged in chat with cricketer Mohinder Amarnath on the dais.
I have little interest in cricket. But I could make out that Tharoor was a crowd puller; the hall was filled to capacity and the audience listened to every word he said or got his interviewee to speak.
In Kerala, there are Tharoor fans who firmly believe that Tharoor should be free to air his opinions on political matters, even as he is a member of the Congress party.
At the same time, there are those who see his tendency to praise the work done by parties competing with the Congress for votes, as quite avoidable.
His words carry weight and the concern is natural. Tharoor on Modi makes the BJP happy while Tharoor on the LDF, makes the Communists happy.
The Congress stays unhappy. For the grand old party, it's a lot like that song from the 1965 movie, The Sound of Music: 'How do you solve a problem like Maria?'
The nuns in the movie (incidentally, The Sound of Music will turn 60 years old this March) had a sense of humoUr, forgiveness and ultimately affection for Maria, which was showcased in the song.
Not so, at the state unit of the Congress which instantly gets a headache when Tharoor lets loose one of his observations showering flowers on enemy territory.
To mention herein, is Tharoor's praise in the past for select instances of good work done by the Modi government at the Centre.
With every such action triggering controversy within a nervous Congress party, some feel it is high time Tharoor showed a degree of solidarity with the ideals of his party and perhaps more importantly, its leaders and workers.
For example, Tharoor's praise for Modi is absolutely unacceptable to those in the Kerala public who are severely critical of the BJP and Hindutva because of its attitude towards Muslims.
I have come across people who argue strongly that in the country's current political climate there can be no fence-sitters.
It has to be all in or all out. Choose, and not be all over the place because praise for good work done by any questionable political party also helps endorse its questionable deeds.
A retired academic and keen observer of society and politics told me about the latest episode in the Tharoor-Congress misunderstandings that Tharoor's attempt to talk sensibly was welcome but the political climate doesn't encourage it.
Still, the way a sulking Congress came around to putting the issue behind it suggests that it can live with a bit of Sound of Music in Kerala politics.
Tharoor's article in February and the controversy it generated, happened days before a major conference inviting investment to Kerala, scheduled to take place in Kochi on February 21.
Kerala has been trying its best to deck up and package itself as an investment destination.
As a senior journalist in Kochi pointed out, for some reason the truth of the matter -- which is that the state is now a decent destination to invest in -- has struggled to be heard.
Each time something goes wrong, the narrative swiftly relapses to reliving the days of yore when labour was militant and strikes were common.
The past is like a quicksand, ever lurking in the background. As Kerala attempts to get the truth of its improved conditions across -- for example, many companies have worked smoothly with no working days lost or operations stalled - one suggestion some people have, is to get successful companies within the state to speak.
There may be the LDF and Tharoor to paint good impressions but there is nothing as convincing for investors as success stories from within, confirming that Kerala is a good investment destination.
Shyam G Menon is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
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