Shashi Tharoor’s charm and persona that enticed voters,
certainly women, elite, middle class and the ones at the lower end of the
economic ladder, have definitely taken a hit in recent months. Not so much because
of his tardy stand on women entering the Sabarimala shrine, but by default because
of the utter lack of sense and loss of direction of his party’s State unit. If
his party the Congress is a concubine of the BJP well, why not treat concubine
as one? Why prefer the concubine over the master- the BJP? Voters have a valid reasoning here! His image
seldom was hit so badly as many say, not even during the immediate aftermath of the misfortune of his
wife’s premature death and the orchestrated campaign of vilification by the BJP
notwithstanding.
Of the 12, 42,901 registered voters in the Thiruvanthapuram
Parliamentary constituency 51.9 percent are women. The communal equation (deciding
Nadar community votes) in the constituency always favoured the Congress, and
literally bailed out Mr.Tharoor in the 2014 Loksabha election. In 2014, at the same
time, there was considerable distancing of Nair and Brahmin votes which went in
favour of the BJP candidate the octogenarian O.Rajagopal. One may say that was
the whiff of the Modi wave blowing across the Ghats! Whether there was such
possibility or not, Nair & Brahmin votes did square up against Tharoor. Now Thiruvanthapuram district with 66.5
percent Hindu votes would prove to be the Waterloo for Tharoor who squeezed
past the pole the previous time and by a whisker (obviously the Nadar/fisher
folk votes came into play in his favour in the less than 15000 margin that saw
him pull ahead at the finishing line. But this time around with the vile
shenanigans of the BJP/Sangh, the utter lack of individuality of the Congress and
a weak ‘intrinsic liberal’ statement of Shashi Tharoor himself , together with
the strong decisive stand of the Pinaryi Govt regardless of the possibility of core Hindu votes deserting the LDF, the BJP
may stand to gain.
The ensuing scenario,
should that happen may be disastrous not just for the Congress , a shame for Shashi
Tharoor but an utterly ominous moment for the State as a whole. A BJP win in
Thriuvanthapram will be more so cataclysmic not because of the BJP winning, but
the constituency losing out on Shashi Tharoor to represent it in parliament. Sieve
incessantly, search the netherworld and their stables the BJP or the Sangh
cannot prop up an able opposite number to Shashi Tharoor. Imagine a vacuous, naïve,
scandal stained nitwit like Sreesanth or a matinee idol (whose only achievement
outside the tinsel world is blogging through ghost writers singing paeans of
Modi) representing Thiruvanathpuram constituency!
What Thiruvanthapuram would lose if it vote for candidate other
than Tharoor be it for the BJP based on the current chaos they orchestrated vis
a vis Sabarimala or a Left nominee (who ever that may be),is a suave man,
persona of class, bipartisan and belonging to a rare breed of politicians
seldom seen in politics in the country, a communicator and listener par
excellence- two qualities that has to be sine qua non in a public figure especially
a representative in the law making body , an articulate customer, a person of
international repute and an able diplomat, an efficient parliamentarian, digitally
inclined and tech savvy, thoughtful and visionary.
Shashi Tharoor moved the private bill against criminalisation
of homosexuality, a move that resonated spirit of the time, a few years before
the Supreme Court struck down section 377, after refusing to remove it off the
statute earlier. But as the
personalities of many of the parliamentarians tell us, twice the bills were
voted out in parliament. No representative had the decent audacity to pilot
such a bill which could usher in a much wanted civlised atmosphere in the
society. He was the strongest voice in the opposition on the disaster called
demonetisation, botched GST, the scams that are dime a dozen now, the Lok pal
and the very many needs of Kerala .
This was what “The
Telegraph” of Calcutta had to comment on Shashi Tharoor’s removal as the
Congress spokesperson. “For an opposition MP to have and to exercise the freedom
to appreciate a good thing done by the government and for a ruling party MP to
speak and vote against the party line is not just legitimate parliamentary practice
, it is the very essence of parliamentary democracy. Shashi Tharoor , from the
Congress has tried to do that there is not one BJP MP who has matched him.
Blind conformism is not loyalty, nor independent thinking, dissent.”
For a man who showed great courage, foresight and awareness
in raising his stand against Sec 377 and the equally forthright stand on very
many socio-cultural and economic issues , indeed the weakling was the miserable
“intrinsic liberal” stand a few days ago
on the Supreme Court Judgment on women
entering Sabarimala. I’m sure he must have been at loss and pain to tell his
own conscience the monumental sophism in that stand which he took, that the Courts
must use the litmus test of societal acceptance when ruling on matters of
faith, belief and customs. If Trivandrumites eventually succumb and be swayed by the political shenanigans thrown up on women entering Sabarimala, the false narrative of alleged planned destruction of the Sabarimal shrine, the orchestrated threat to Hindus, the bogey of minorities bludgeoning Hindus out of existence and the many other porkies, and innuendos it would be a sad day when the Gods themselves would wail inconsolably for Thiruvanthapuram.
Worse,Thriuvanthapuram would lose irretrievably if a parochial,
mean, obscurantist, moronic, bigot dethrones Shashi Tharoor .
Trivandrumites
will rue that day!
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