Shashi becomes Bhakt

• Many politicians including Shashi Tharoor and Jairam Ramesh questioned the efficiency of India made Bharat Biotech vaccine. But now politicians across the spectrum are forced to recognize the effective vaccination drive.
• The praise of the government by Tharoor, who often walks a tightrope between ‘Gandhi-family loyalist’ and ‘rebel,’ revives the idea of G-23 which wants to snatch the leadership of the Congress party from the clutches of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Shashi Tharoor, one of the Group of 23 leaders who rebelled against Congress High Command (read Nehru-Gandhi family), praised Prime Minister Modi’s government after the country achieved the 1 billion vaccinations mark. “This is a matter of pride for all Indians. Let’s give the Government credit. After severe mismanagement of the second #Covid wave & botching the vaccination orders that might have prevented it, Govt has now partly redeemed itself. It remains accountable for its earlier failures,” tweeted Tharoor.

After this tweet, many Congress leaders including spokesperson Pawan Khera criticized him directly or indirectly for praising the government. Tagging Tharoor’s tweet, Pawan Khera wrote, “Giving credit to govt is an insult to millions of families who suffered and are still suffering from the after effects & side effects of widespread Covid mismanagement. Before seeking credit, PM must apologise to those families. Credit belongs to scientists & medical fraternity.”

The ‘experts’ around the world opined that it would take years for India to vaccinate all of its eligible population. Media organizations like India Today estimated that the country would not reach 1 billion vaccinations even in 8 years. But under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, the nation achieved this feat in a few months with multiple days when more than 1 crore (10 million) vaccines were given.

Many politicians including Shashi Tharoor and Jairam Ramesh questioned the efficiency of the India-made Bharat Biotech vaccine. But now politicians across the spectrum are forced to recognise the effective vaccination drive, although they are shying away from giving credit to the government.

The praise of the government by Tharoor, who often walks on a very thin line between ‘Gandhi-family loyalist’ and ‘rebel,’ revives the idea of G-23 which wants to snatch the leadership of the Congress party from the clutches of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Last year, heading the G-23 group, Ghulam Nabi Azad and several other senior Congress leaders had shot out an angry letter to Rahul and Sonia Gandhi, complaining about not having free and fair elections within the party. The letter, however, got leaked before the annual Congress meet and an angry Rahul Gandhi went out on a prowl against those who penned the letter.

Reacting in the aftermath of the letter controversy, Azad laid bare his pain of not having any elected bodies in the party and the prospect of sitting in opposition for 50 more years. “For the last many decades, we do not have elected bodies in the party. Maybe we should have pushed for it 10-15 years ago. Now we are losing elections after elections, and if we have to come back we need to strengthen our party by holding elections. If my party wants to be in opposition for the next 50 years, then there is no need for elections within the party,” Azad had said.

The fact that Rahul Gandhi is an MP from Wayanad in Kerala, and yet the UDF could not manage to breach the 50 seats mark should be a testimony to his failed credentials. Historically, every five years, the government changes in Kerala but owing to Rahul’s incompetence, LDF has managed to rewrite the history books.

Congress is getting weaker with every passing election under the leadership of the Gandhi family. In Uttar Pradesh, despite all the theatrics from Priyanka Gandhi, the Congress leaders are leaving the party to join SP or BSP, because no one has any hope of the party winning the election. Once the results of the UP election are out, there could be a major split in the Congress party.