A meeting of the Kerala unit of Congress on Wednesday will deliberate on whether any disciplinary action should be initiated against party MP Shashi Tharoor. The Congress spokesman is facing the ire of party leaders in Kerala after he accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to join the Swachh Bharat campaign. Sensing the build-up in the party against him for praising Modi, Tharoor on Tuesday tweeted that the PM should work for an India cleansed of bigotry, hatred, intolerance and divisiveness, an India that is truly clean. Meanwhile, the Congress in Kerala stood united in attacking Tharoor, who has always been persona non grata for state leaders. A section of the leaders feel that the opportunity — especially when the party high command seems to have lost its commanding power — should be used to rein in Tharoor. State Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said the party will discuss the issue on Wednesday. He said the party will not allow any leader to execute the agenda of the BJP or RSS. He added that the Congress could not accept Tharoor extending support for Modi. His views were echoed by party state president V M Sudheeran and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Meanwhile, the party’s mouthpiece in Kerala on Tuesday said fortune hunters should be forcefully taken out if they are disinclined to correct themselves. Without naming Tharoor, the editorial in Veekshanam said that Modi’s visit to America and his cleanliness drive on Gandhi Jayanti had exposed the true intentions of certain foreign specialists. Questioning how long these people would stay with the Congress, the editorial said that such people may be tempted by the prosperity and power in the BJP camp. It said it is unfaithful to seek selection by the BJP while staying with the Congress. Meanwhile, PTI quoted Tharoor as telling NDTV on Tuesday that he was being targeted for being an outsider. “Nobody understands when somebody is trying to express a complex set of ideas,” he said and underlined he has been seen by some as a “foreign object in the body politic”. “And perhaps there is a difficulty in digesting who I am and how I conduct myself,” he reportedly told NDTV. The AICC said the Kerala state unit is discussing the matter and it will wait for their decision before taking a call.
