In his speech in the Lok Sabha, the disgraced diplomat-author-columnist Shashi Tharoor quoted the Malayali poet mahakavi Vallathol Narayana Menon:
“When you hear the name of India, your heart must well with pride; and when you hear the name of Kerala, the blood must throb in your veins.”
Without once mentining the buzzwords of the week—Indian Premier League, Sunanda Pushkar or sweat equity—the Trivandrum MP waxed grandiloquent:
“I am proud to represent the capital of Kerala, a State that in so many ways is a traiblazer for India’s progress. Keralite ethos with its cultural unity admist religious diversity, its high educational standards and respect for democracy, its commitment to the empowerment of women and wellbeing of the poor embodies the best of India.”
No problem with all that, except that it comes from the mouth of a man who has taken to explaining globalisation from every podum and pulpit.
Kanchan Gupta, associate editor of The Pioneer, finds fault with the inherent parochialism:
“By repeatedly referring to Thiruvananthapuram and Kerala, the “ethos of Kerala”, the people of Kerala (with whom he had no association at all during his growing up years in Kolkata and Delhi and the many decades he spent at the UN) he has tried to link high issues of ministerial probity with low politics of provincial identity.
“The unstated though clear message he has sought to send out is that an elected representative of Kerala is being unjustly penalised. That’s balderdash and Mr Tharoor, more than anybody else, knows it.
“It’s strange that a suave, accomplished person with an impressive track record of serving an international organisation with distinction, and whose last tweet sent out at 11.16 pm on April 16 reads, “U folks are the new India. We will ‘be the change’ we wish to see in our country,” should fall back on the discredited ‘old’ politics of provincial pride and prejudice in his time of trouble. That’s as distressing as his fiancée benefiting from a cricket franchise deal that he ‘mentored’. “
Read the full article: L’affaire Shashi Tharoor
Also read: TWEET THIS: Shashi Tharoor and Globalisation 2.0
churumuri 
Tharoor can be termed as one of the most immatured politican of recent times. His arrogance with a thinking of cleverest person on the earth has backfired him big time. Its shocking to see how a person who has got so much experinec in deplomatic relationships across the world and have worked along with many world leaders, done mockery of himself and had to be kicked out of the ruling govt !!..that too in india !!
now many ppl start questioning smartness of this ex secratary general of UN with following reasons..
1. If he was smart, then he would have played the petty corruption politics along with some involvement by senior crooks in his own partymen like Rajeev Shukla or someone else..so that definately he would not have cornered by his party boss.. But again his arrogance didnt allow him to wise
2. After one story after another started coming out last week and many realised heads will roll, he had a option to offer resign with smart line saying- to avoid embarassment to Party and Govt. He had ample time for this, because PM was out of the country then. by that, he would have attained some support from within the party itself.
3. When he knew that Modi is acting for the intrest of bombay businessmen in a crooked way, why he didnt play his game with same scandalous way? After he got to know Modi got support from both ruling(NCP) & Oppsition party, why his 30+ years diplomatic expericne dint help him to forsee the probable consequences?
4. At the end why he indulged in playing kerala and malayalam card in his speech? Was he aiming to gather sympathy support from his consti? If he is associated with some regional party, then its understandable. But being a member of national party and having the image generation next politican, why he followed somewhat similar footsteps of Raj or Udbhav or Mamata?
after almost 1 year of making so much noise with tweets, cattle class or new word like interlocutor, Tharror reminds that line which I heard in school days: – “Pusthaka da badane kaayi ootakke barolla”
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Tharoor can be referred as an “YeLe Nimbekaayi” in politics as well as in Business.
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Well any day he is a lot better than many from Karnatak who just went and slept through everything!!
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@Sally Rao,
if all our politicians do just that i.e sleep all day and do nothing else, then our country will be in a lot better shape.
Kaangi wants some blood or the other (preferably some Modi), Modi is backed to a corner and in return is squeezing BCCI and NCP kahunas, BCCI is trying to get away clean, BIMARU politicos are smelling cricket money and want a cut of the action. So who/what is going to be the peace offering for madam to quieten this hurricane is the next mystery.
2-3 books, 1-2 movies worth stuff in a matter of days … wow
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Oh yea!.. elect some more and send to the Center… let’s see who is gonna accept them .. Huh!
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I felt sashi tharoor with all his education and UN background will bring some change in Indian politics… it is a real pity to see him play provincial identity politics….He ended up like every other politician
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Agreed that Tharoor was too elasu for the complicated plot of politics- but why on earth are people equating provincial politics with discredited and low politics. What makes nationalistic politics any greater- why is national identity supposed to be greater and better than provincial poilitics. BTW the use of the term provincial indicates a clear colonial mind set.
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Aiyoo!
Excellent. Now he can focus his time on mentoring other MPs on how to lobby for big business interests.
Anybody want a bottle coke from Plachimada?
Who wants politicians who are not absolutists when it comes to freedom of speech anyway? Who wants politicians who are used to taking warm and fuzzy diplomatic positions that are the equivalent of cementing one’s arse to the wall?
He has become a bit of a Wodehouse like caricature himself hasn’t he?
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@ gaby:
Bang on point..couldn’t agree more with you.
I wonder why having identification with a state/region and thereby some pride in it is so wrong. Aren’t we supposed to be a federal system of a collection of states?
Are boundaries so bad (read regional/state)? Then why stop at a nation? Go the whole hog and define oneself as a Vishwa Manava – Kuvempu would be happy.
I don’t see any contradiction in being a Kanndiga as well as an Indian. I am equally proud of both these identities. When Karnataka plays Ranji vs Bombay I just pray and hope they win. When India plays Australia I pray Sachin and Sehwag would blast the Oz quickies out of the ground. Where’s the problem? Atleast i can’t see one.
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As shobha De quipped ‘Tharoor is the victim of his arrogance’. He thinks he can be fool all with his empty words. yes , he plays the Kerala card to disentangle himself from the sorry situation he is in .
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@gaby,
extending your comment –
the notable point to see here is the first major politically wounded preacher of american globalization from congress.
we should welcome such people who want to come out of globalization and embrace them and show why provincialism is as obvious as natural diversity ; but be careful too since tweeting birds have greater tendency to be infidel than tigers.
Ok let’s move to Kanchan Gupta –
A ‘Gupta’ in Kanchan itself shows low politics of “inherent parochialism”. Are Guptas SC/ST in great nationalistic Indian reservation system?
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The crazy thing about this fiasco is that, among all the players in IPL saga, Tharoor is the one who looks the least culpable!!
Did he break any law – Not likely.
Did he do something unethical such as misusing his official power to change an outcome? – Again he wasn’t in a position to influence or change the outcome of IPL.
So, what exactly is it he did that is so unacceptable? – Basically he used his influence, to get information that otherwise wouldn’t be available to him, and thus negotiated a nice little sweet heart deal for his armcandy.
Now, if you properly look at how business gets done in the world, you’ll realise everyone uses their existing position/job to build a network and help each other out, as long as it doesn’t go beyond ethical/legal limits.
I still am to read anything that shows Tharoor did anything unethical.
As to him using Kerala tag – So what?
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“negotiated a nice little sweet heart deal for his armcandy.”
“that shows Tharoor did anything unethical.”
Shashi- one of us, A Raja-one of them.
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DB:
>Shashi- one of us, A Raja-one of them.
I can’t figure if you are a closet supporter of Raja or as with most of your other messages you have a sarcastic way of dismissing everything.
Here is the fundamental diff, with what Raja and Tharoor did.
Raja was in control of the 2G auction process and the allegation is that he rigged the process to benefit a few, for a gain on the side.
In case of Tharoor, he wasn’t in control of the process that he is supposed to have rigged for gain.
In reality Modi, Pawar et.al look more guilty of IPL mess than tharoor for that reason alone.
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Tharoor was the poster boy of the Congress and when he was bitten by the twittermania he went high for it made waves and basked in the limelight since the PM himself took a benign view. This emboldened him and Lalit Modi was shrewd enough to see how naive he was and perhaps for the fun of it lured him and Tharoor fell for it. And when a lady also entered the scene Tharoor became reckless and took the final plunge and sank into the quagmire of his own making. Now we see the whole IPL field turned into a quicksand to which everybody is sinking.The fun is only starting now
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Harkol Sir,
“you have a sarcastic way of dismissing everything.”
Thats not true, I just have a different point of view :-)
BTW, I am a great supporter of gamechangers like Raja, Mayavati & Reddy brothers.
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Daily Bread:
>gamechangers like Raja, Mayavati & Reddy brothers.
Sure. Why leave out Pappu Yadav?
May be we should pardon Dawood Ibrahim and get him to manage our Home Ministry. He’ll certainly change the game.
I am sure Azaruddin is a great IPL comissioners, he has changed the ‘game’ before too! ;-)
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