Love is all you need

When Narendra Modi referred to Sunanda Tharoor as a “50-crore girlfriend”,the controversy rippled out much further than he may have expected. Many attacked Modi for his crass subtext,and for his readiness to attack the families of his political adversaries. For all the solemn condemnation from the Congress about “vitiating the discourse”,however,it was Shashi Tharoor who dealt with it best,informing Modi on Twitter that his wife was priceless,“but you need2be able2love some1 2understand that”. When the BJP then tried to put him down,saying he should be made a “minister of love affairs”,Tharoor swung right back,saying it was “better to be a minister of love than a chief minister of hate”. He converted his own “soft” image into an asset,because,really,what’s so wrong with being unabashedly in love with your spouse? He also neatly flipped the focus back to Modi and his biggest weakness,in 140 characters or less.

Tharoor’s tweets may not be great rhetorical accomplishments,but they respond to Modi,on his own terms,with a naturalness that has eluded the Congress so far. The party has been rattled by Modi — after Sonia Gandhi’s “maut ka saudagar” attack,it seems to have decided that taking him on would only polarise votes and work against the party. For all his systematic low blows against the Congress leadership,there has been barely a cheep out of the party (except maybe the occasional zinger by Digvijaya Singh). Modi has effectively become he-who-must-not-be-named,as the Congress made its own wariness look like a principled refusal to engage. It just has not been able to find its own voice when it speaks to Modi,or respond to his attacks as it would react to any other political leader.

Tharoor has clearly won this round — and maybe even given the Congress some pointers on how to deal with Modi. Not by demonising him or pretending he doesn’t exist,but by rejecting his terms altogether,and doing so with aplomb.