Nearly a week after Shashi Tharoor’s remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech set off a political firestorm, the Congress MP said that even his “neutral post” on the PM’s address “has been attacked as praising the Prime Minister”. He suggested that people should look beyond ideological purity and cooperate with the Centre to get things done.

Last week, Tharoor took to X to post in detail the references from PM Modi’s speech at the sixth Ramnath Goenka Lecture, organised by The Indian Express.

Tharoor said he was glad to have been in the audience despite a bad cold and cough. He stated that the Prime Minister’s speech “served as both an economic outlook and a cultural call to action, urging the nation to be restless for progress”.

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He noted that the PM spoke of India’s “constructive impatience” for development and strongly pushed for a post-colonial mindset.

‘Ideological purity not the way to get things done’

At a recent event, Tharoor said that sometimes people need to be “more willing to cooperate across ideologies”. However, he added, “our problem right now is that our politics seems to demand everybody has to be such a purist ideologically that they will not see any merit on the other side, they will not talk to anybody on the other side”.

Shashi Tharoor reposted the video of his remarks from the event, by Amrita News, on his X handle.

“In fact, even a neutral post by me on a speech by the Prime Minister has been attacked as praising the Prime Minister. I didn’t say a single word of praise, I just described the speech,” Tharoor added.

He said that being solely interested in ideological purity is not the way to get things done.

The Congress leader asked if a state government doesn’t cooperate with the people at the Centre, “how would you get anything done?” He then said, “I find this, to my mind, a no-brainer.”

“You really have to say it is in our interest to cooperate in the interest of our people who are both citizens of India and citizens of Kerala. So yes, I don’t disagree with the ruling party, but they are the ruling party, they have a mandate from the nation. I will work with them,” he added.

Tharoor went on to say that if the central government introduces a scheme with conditions that it would provide money to the state only if a certain work is done, then he “will discuss” it with the Centre.

“I will see how I can implement it within the framework of my convictions, but I will take the money because my people in my state need the money. That kind of thing, that kind of cooperation, to my mind, is essential,” the Congress MP added.

Tharoor cited a recent example from Kerala, where a central scheme was rejected, and the money was denied, even when the state “is broke and needs the money”.

“There are schools, government schools, whose roofs are leaking, roofs are collapsing, where we don’t have money for desks and blackboards, and we are now acting ideologically pure and refusing the money from the Centre. That’s crazy. It’s taxpayers’ money. It’s our money. It’s our money,’ Tharoor said.

The Congress leader had drawn massive fire from his own party over his remarks on PM Modi’s speech. Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit had asked why Tharoor was in the party if he felt the Bharatiya Janata Party and PM Modi’s strategies were better.

Dikshit said that Tharoor should give an explanation for his remarks, and if he does not do so, then he is a “hypocrite”.

Congress leader Supriya Shrinate said that she did not find anything “praiseworthy” in PM Modi’s speech, adding that she rather found it to be “petty”. Shrinate said she did not understand how Tharoor found a reason to appreciate it.