Shashi Tharoor appeared on the Lahore Literature Festival through video conferencing and during a conversation with a Pakistan based journalist, denigrated India and praised Pakistan’s efforts in combatting the Coronavirus pandemic. The discussion revolved around the subject matter of how the Coronavirus changed the world.
The senior Congress leader said, “We look with envy across the border because you chaps seem to be having a rather pleasant time of it in terms of being able to return to normalcy. We are still facing many places where numbers are going up so there’s no sense yet of a peak having been reached and in some parts, including both the capital where I am now, and in my constituency of Thirvananthapuram in the extreme South, the numbers are worse than they have ever been.”
“The Indian government is not doing well and the people realize this. Rahul Gandhi mentioned as early as February that COVID-19 must be taken seriously otherwise India will face economic catastrophe so he should get credit for it,” Shashi Tharoor said further. Then he chastised the Indian government for organising the Howdy Modi event.
The Congress leader then mourned the fact that people are continuing to place their faith in the leadership of Narendra Modi and expressed a sense of bewilderment while saying so. Shashi Tharoor added, “Tablighi Jamaat super-spreader event was used to justify open bigotry and discrimination against the Muslims”.
The BJP condemned his comments and said, “It is so foolish and juvenile for someone who calls himself an intellectual to say what he said by painting Rahul Gandhi as modern-day Nostradamus.” It is not the first time that a senior leader of the Congress party has denigrated India and played politics at a Pakistani platform.
Before Shashi Tharoor, there was Mani Shankar Aiyar who in November 2015 sparked off a controversy when he told a Pakistani media channel that Modi had to be removed in order to restore relations between India and Pakistan. That was construed by many as soliciting help from Pakistan on defenestrating PM Modi.