Shashi Tharoor has emerged as the liberal icon of India with his carefully crafted PR strategy which has endeared himself into the hearts and minds of the liberals. His image severely took a beating when his wife Sunanda Pushkar died under mysterious circumstances and the questions were rightly pointed at him. But that didn’t deter the left liberals who wanted the Congress to declare him as the Prime Ministerial candidate.
It was only a matter of time when his mask was about to fall off and the past few weeks have been pretty difficult for Tharoor. He was slammed by the leftists for standing up against Islamic fundamentalism and yesterday appearing on CNN News 18, Tharoor finally shed his mask as in a highly distasteful comment, Tharoor compared Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to eunuchs for wanting power without responsibilities.
Tharoor over the years has made LGBTQ+ rights a national issue and various LGBTQ+ voices have made Tharoor their hero as he has stood up for them at the first opportunity of asking. But its seems that Tharoor’s care for the LGTBQ+ community was nothing but hogwash as when CNN News 18 journalist Marya Shakil asked Tharoor what could be the reason behind Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s silence over the recent ongoing anti-CAA protests, he replied, “Mr Kejriwal is trying to have it both ways. He has made statements deploring the CAA-NRC saying why is it necessary, government should withdraw it, but he has not taken any tangible action. He has not even shown the human compassion one expects of the chief minister towards the victims of violence in his own state. In any other states if the students were bashed up this way, the chief minister of the state would have visited them at home or shown them some concern, gone to their campuses. Mr Kejriwal really wants power without responsibility, which we all know has been the prerogative of the eunuchs for ages. That kind of completely ineffective chief ministerial approach is apparently going to safeguard his space. You can spent your all political life not trying to make enemies but at the end of the day what do you stand for? What values fo you represent? What principles are you trying to put forward before the electorate?”
#TharoorOnNews18 – Mr. Kejriwal really wants power without responsibility, which we all know has been the prerogative of eunuchs for ages: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor)
Watch #NewsEpicentre with @maryashakil. #CitizenshipShowdown pic.twitter.com/WhcP5paCAt
— News18 (@CNNnews18) January 13, 2020
He further said that Kejriwal has failed the people of Delhi. He mentioned how some of his friends, who were traditionally Congress supporters, had voted for Kejriwal as it appeared idealistic party.
Tharoor who is famed for being charmingly verbose, has still managed to make a derogatory comment on live TV, which he could and should have avoided. Such a usage of words by liberal hero Shashi Tharoor, is very unbecoming of him and exposes his fallacies. The LGBTQ+ community must denounce such remarks.
While Tharoor has apologised and withdrew his comments on Twitter, we’re also yet to see what Kejriwal feels about it. Does this statement by Tharoor means that in case of a hung Delhi Assembly, the INC like in the past, won’t form an alliance with the AAP just to keep the BJP out?
Apologies to those who found my quote about "power without responsibility" offensive. It's an old line from British politics, going back to Kipling & PrimeMinister Stanley Baldwin, &most recently used by Tom Stoppard. I recognize that its use today was inappropriate &withdraw it.
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) January 13, 2020
It seems that Tharoor is not having a particularly good time. Recently he was hounded by people leaning towards Islamic fundamentalism for criticising the use of the slogan ‘la ilaha illallah’ in the anti-CAA protests. As a result, in Jamia, while addressing a meet the crowd yelled it to his face.
It is a spectacular fall from grace for the famed liberal icon.
