Shashi Tharoor not to participate in CPM seminar

On Sunday, state Congress chief K Sudhakaran said the party has given a direction to all its leaders, including MPs, against participating in the seminars.

Tharoor, in a statement on Monday, said he has discussed with Sonia the matter of his participation in the seminar on centre-state relations on the sidelines of the CPI(M) national Party Congress. He said he had welcomed the invitation because the event was a “national one and the highest forum of the CPM, organised by its Central Committee and formulates its national policy”.

“Nationally, we have a cooperative relationship with the CPI(M),” he noted. Besides the topic for the seminar, he said, “does not involve any matter of sensitivity in Kerala but is on ‘centre-state relations’, where there is no real difference of opinion between our parties”. Moreover, the “event sets a fine example of intellectual exchange on policy issues among anti-BJP opposition parties, which should in principle be encouraged.”

“I respect her (Sonia’s) views on this matter and have conveyed to the organisers my inability to participate,” he said.

Incidentally, Tharoor said that “broader questions of our relations with the CPI(M) at the national level, the specific topic of centre-state relations, and the manner in which invitations from other political parties should be handled, remain to be addressed separately”.

“A month ago, a similar invitation was extended for a seminar on the sidelines of the CPI(M) state party conference. On that occasion also, I consulted the AICC president and a suitable decision was taken without any media controversy. A similar procedure could easily have been followed this time also. I regret that some preferred the unseemly public airing of internal differences, thereby creating a needless controversy in a matter in which AICC’s view was binding. I hope wisdom will prevail in future,” he said.