How Long Will Congress Tolerate Tharoor? The Question That Troubles Party Ranks

Thiruvananthapuram: How long will Shashi Tharoor remain in the Congress? That is the question reverberating through the party corridors ever since the Thiruvananthapuram MP began pricking the Congress leadership—this time soon after securing his fourth consecutive Lok Sabha victory on the party ticket.

Now, by taking a frontal swipe at dynastic politics—without sparing the party’s first family, though with a few polite caveats—Tharoor has clearly crossed a red line. Within Congress circles, the question being whispered aloud is: “How long will the party tolerate Tharoor?”

In an article for Project Syndicate, Tharoor described family-run political outfits as a “grave threat to India’s democratic fabric, where entitlement eclipses merit.” To balance the argument, he invoked the legacy of the Nehru–Gandhi family dating back to the freedom movement. Yet, between the lines, it was clear he views his own party as no exception to the culture of hereditary control.

Earlier, in an op-ed for a Malayalam daily, Tharoor had called the Emergency (1975-77) a “dark chapter” in India’s history, laying the blame squarely on Indira Gandhi for suspending civil liberties and democratic rights.
His revival of a period that still haunts the Congress came at a sensitive moment—when Rahul Gandhi routinely brandishes the pocket edition of the Constitution at public events to underline his party’s democratic commitment.

The timing of Tharoor’s latest broadside—questioning family politics—was especially inconvenient for the leadership, coinciding as it did with the Bihar Assembly election campaign, where Rahul Gandhi shared the stage with Tejashwi Yadav, another dynastic successor.

In the Congress’s unspoken rule book, questioning the sanctity of the first family remains the gravest heresy. History shows that those who challenged the dynasty’s supremacy rarely survived within the organisation.

Significantly, Tharoor’s remarks dovetail neatly with the BJP’s narrative against the Congress and other family-led parties in the INDIA bloc—one of the NDA’s central campaign planks in Bihar.

Although his essay sparked animated debate in the media, the Congress high command has so far chosen to ignore him publicly.
Yet, many in the party believe there is method in Tharoor’s provocation. The seasoned diplomat-turned-parliamentarian knows the consequences of dissent, but seems confident that, given the party’s current fragility, the leadership cannot risk a disciplinary showdown.

Back home in Kerala, however, Tharoor stands increasingly isolated within the state unit. He is conspicuously absent from party programmes, and few expect local candidates to seek his campaign support in the forthcoming local-body polls, the schedule for which is to be announced shortly.

For now, Congress leaders can only speculate: will the party act against its most high-profile contrarian—or continue to tolerate him, hoping his barbs lose sting with time?