Shashi Tharoor, chosen for Veer Savarkar award, says won’t accept; NGO organisers claim he knew in advance

While Tharoor said that he will not be accepting the award on Wednesday evening in Delhi, Aji Krishnan, founder–secretary of the NGO, said that the Congress MP was chosen for the award due to “his work towards nation building”. He also claimed they had met Tharoor regarding the award earlier.

In a statement, the Congress MP said that he has come to know from media reports that he has been named a recipient of the “Veer Savarkar Award”.

“I only learned about this announcement yesterday in Kerala, where I had gone to vote in the local self-government elections,” said Tharoor, in a statement on X.

“There in Thiruvananthapuram, responding to media queries, I had clarified that I was neither aware of, nor had accepted, such an award, and it was irresponsible on the part of the organisers to announce my name without my having agreed to receive it,” he said.

Tharoor said that in the absence of clarifications about the nature of the award, the organisation presenting it or any other contextual details, the question of his attending the event today or accepting the award does not arise.

When contacted, IHRDS founder secretary Aji Krishnan said, “The decision was communicated to Tharoor a month back itself. We met Tharoor at his house, informed him about the award and invited him to the function. Besides, two weeks ago, our jury chairman, Ravi Kanth (retired IAS), met Tharoor at his house. He wanted to know about other recipients of the award instituted in the name of Savarkar. We shared those details too. There was no issue, and he had agreed to accept the award and attend the event. Till now, we have no communication from Tharoor that he will not attend the event. He might have faced pressure from Congress.”

He also said that Tharoor was chosen for the award due to his “global credentials”. “He (Tharoor) has truly always represented India’s views. In the recent past, he was chosen by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be part of a delegation which went abroad to put India’s perspective in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor. More recently, he was invited to the state dinner in honour of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has always spoken about nation-building and in favour of India’s interests. His talks on British colonialism are inspiring.”

Master AtmaNambi, who is the president of HRDS India, called the award “a powerful tribute to India’s revolutionary spirit, guided by Swami Atma Nambi and inaugurated by Rajnath Singh Ji”.

While Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will inaugurate the awards, J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha is the chief dignitary for the award function on Wednesday evening in Delhi. Tharoor is among the six award winners.

Congress-Tharoor relationship tenuous

The relationship between the Congress leadership and Tharoor has been tenuous over the past few months.

On Friday, after Tharoor was invited to the dinner in honour of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Congress had said that “those who extended such an invitation raise questions, and those who accepted are also open to scrutiny”.

“Everyone has their own conscience, their own inner voice. Had we been invited instead of our leaders, it is clear that we would not have accepted it,” said Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera after the invitation was extended to Tharoor and not to the Leaders of Opposition in both Houses of Parliament, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi.

Tharoor, who is the chairman of the Parliamentary committee on External Affairs, attended the dinner event on Friday. “There was a time when the Chairman of the External Affairs committee was routinely invited. That practice seemed to have been stopped for some years. It has been resumed, it seems. I will go,” he said.

Asked about the two LOPs not being invited, Tharoor had said: “I am not sure on what basis the invitations were given. When I was chairman earlier, I used to go.”

On the invitation to the award function, former Congress state chief K Muraleedharan said no party leader should accept an award instituted in the name of Savarkar. “He (Savarkar) is a person who had submitted mercy petitions to the British. Accepting an award instituted in the name of such a person is an insult to Congress. I hope Tharoor will not do it,” he said.

On Wednesday, senior CPI(M) leader and Industries Minister P Rajeev said, “Ideologically certain people have accepted RSS, but remain with Congress. Now, a situation has emerged in Congress where a leader can work with that party even after embracing RSS ideology.”