Congress’ sitting MP Shashi Tharoor from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram has said that the claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will win a third term and achieve its target of 400 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is “far-fetched”.
In an interview with The Wire, Tharoor who is seeking a fourth consecutive term said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did well in all states where they are strong in 2019, and “in most of those states there’s only one way for them to go – down.”
“I think from what we are seeing, from the reports that have come in of the BJP’s declining support, their desperate search to regain allies whom they had unceremoniously parted from in the past, to their own panic and fear (visible in the jailing of Opposition leaders in the middle of an election or freezing of bank accounts of the Congress), the claim that Modi will receive a third term, let alone 400 seats, is far-fetched,” he said.
Tharoor, who is also a member of the CWC (Congress Working Committee), is locked in a three-way fight with the BJP candidate Union minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar and the CPI’s Panniyan Raveendran.
After three terms as MP, Tharoor said that the only voter fatigue in Thiruvananthapuram is against the saffron party’s “divisive hatred” and that while the BJP is looking at the South as the only region where it can grow from its 2019 tally, “the BJP has literally nothing to point to in Kerala in their ten years of rule.”
Polling to all 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala will be held on April 26.
Read the full interview below which was conducted over email:
You are seeking a record fourth term as MP, what are the issues that you are looking to highlight to the voters?
There’s obviously the record of my fifteen years of service to the constituency, which embraces development projects, crisis management during Cyclone Ockhi and Covid, and personal initiatives such as bringing a UAE Consulate to the city or persuading international firms like Oracle to establish themselves in the Technopark here. And then there are the national issues on which I have taken stands that have resonated with my voters.
Under the BJP, civil liberties and press freedoms have visibly come under strain, with the party repressing and intimidating political opponents, student protesters, media organisations, individual journalists, and human rights organisations. Concurrently, the aam aadmi is suffering from the double curse of high unemployment and painful inflation, along with a dangerously increasing gap between the rich and the poor. The BJP, through its campaign of distraction, wants the focus to be on anything but this. When we go to polls over the next few weeks, voters will have the choice to support a new India united in striving, or an India divided by communal hatred. We can support an inclusive vision of the future, or one that excludes and disempowers. My answer is clear: I have been a national voice for India’s diversity and pluralism. My rejection of the BJP’s “Hindi, Hindutva, Hindustan” agenda is a core element of my appeal.
Our voters know the importance of substantive issues – unemployment, price rise and communal hatred being key among them – and they realise those are the responsibilities of the Union government. People elect a government to look after their welfare, and if they vote in their self-interest nationally they will vote the BJP out of office. That is what I have been reiterating in my campaign.
You are facing formidable opposition from the BJP in the form of Union minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar as well as from Pannyan Raveendran from the CPI. One is a union minister, and the other a veteran leader. How do you plan to address voter fatigue that may have crept in after three terms?
Fatigue settles in when there is stagnancy, and my terms as MP have seen anything but that. My primary concern has been the well-being of my voters, and I am confident that the people of Thiruvananthapuram will again repose their confidence in me. Those who have seen me in action for 15 years have had multiple reasons to appreciate my services to the constituency, and the stands that I have taken on national issues in Parliament, and on the world stage. As for my achievements for the constituency over the last 15 years, I have released a 66-page report (available in the public domain on www.shashitharoor.in) that lays them out in full detail for all to assess. If there is “fatigue” in any form, it is with the divisive hatred the BJP has infused into our national political discourse, and that is the only fatigue that the people of Thiruvananthapuram will be voting against in 2024.
You have also recently called the BJP campaign “energetic”. But at the same time, you have said that the Left campaign only includes attacking you. Are you saying that the fight is only between the Congress and the BJP and the Left is not in the picture?
Putting up a candidate against me is something the Left has done every time, and I can’t criticise them for that, since I took the seat from them in the first place. My critique of the Left devoting their entire campaign to attacking me is to point out that this is a tactic which can only help the BJP. The Left claims to be very concerned about opposition unity, but fails to address why, instead of focusing on the BJP’s misrule, which they are supposed to oppose in a national election, they are devoting most of their energies to undermining me. Intentional or otherwise, their campaign has been almost entirely against me, accusing me, for instance, of being anti-Palestine and anti-Muslim, which is utter nonsense. Whereas my campaign entirely targets the national government’s misrule, this is oddly absent from theirs. As far as the nature of contestation in the constituency is concerned, I have maintained that it is a three-cornered contest in which the BJP’s extremely well-funded campaign has an edge over the Left, but I also remain completely confident in my ability to once again succeed. Both because of my strong and visible track record of service to the people of Thiruvananthapuram in my 15 years as their MP, and because my stance on national and global issues resound my electorate.
There has been some resentment against you from the fishermen community over your support for the Vizhinjam Seaport project. Do you see that affecting your chances for a fourth term?
Before I answer this, there is a need to put the Vizhinjam agitation into perspective. When the Vizhinjam project was started in 2015 by the UDF government, in response to the wishes of the local people, I had taken steps with the Chief Minister (Oomen Chandy) to ensure that this project would not cause distress to anyone in the area, and that those affected would benefit from a rehabilitation package of Rs 475 Cr., which was authorised by the State Cabinet in 2015-16 and was to be implemented in five years. Some Rs 100 crore had been spent when the Congress-led UDF lost the election in 2016. It is the failure of the LDF state government to fulfil the rest of this solemn commitment which lies at the root of the Vizhinjam agitation.
Fishermen also took to the sea in their boats to voice their protests against the port project. Photo: By arrangement
I have always been receptive to concerns that my voters have: even in this case, I have taken into account the issues raised by the people affected by this project and sought to ensure that the local population forms a part of the success story of the port. The only issue in which I stood aside from them was on their demand to stop the port construction. On other issues, I have been involved in the discussions held with the community leaders and supportive of mediation efforts by Cardinal Mar Baselios Cleemis and others. I hope the state government will fulfil its predecessors’ promises and the local community’s grievances are resolved without further delay, even as I reiterate that the success of the Vizhinjam project is set to provide a gateway that connects Trivandrum to the world and with it, endless business and trading opportunities resulting in jobs, growth and wealth in the whole region. I am certain that the voters will recognise this.
Along with being an MP, you are also a member of the CWC. The prime minister has set the target of 400 seats, and for this Kerala and other southern states are crucial. What is your take on this target as a whole and do you think they will be able to make inroads in the southern states?
I think from what we are seeing, from the reports that have come in of the BJP’s declining support, their desperate search to regain allies whom they had unceremoniously parted from in the past, to their own panic and fear (visible in the jailing of Opposition leaders in the middle of an election or freezing of bank accounts of the Congress), the claim that Modi will receive a third term, let alone 400 seats, is far-fetched. People are hurting with record unemployment, declining incomes and high inflation and this will reflect in the elections. The BJP did too well in 2019 in all states where they are strong, and in most of those states there’s only one way for them to go – down.
As for the second part of your question, there is no doubt that the BJP is trying to make inroads into the South. The PM’s recent peregrinations in the region are clear indications of that, and since they have peaked everywhere else in 2019, this is the only region left where they hope they can grow.
The more relevant question is – what have they done for the South? Aside from national schemes that are applicable anywhere, the BJP has literally nothing to point to in Kerala in their ten years of rule. They made three promises to the State and broke all of them. They promised Kerala an AIIMS; no AIIMS has come. Their AYUSH Minister, in response to me, promised us a National University of Ayurveda; they established it in Gujarat instead. In their Budget of 2015-16, they explicitly accepted my request to upgrade the National Institute of Speech and Hearing in Thiruvananthapuram to a National University for Disability Studies. Despite this solemn commitment in Parliament, when they established such a University, they decided to do so in the North-East. After three broken promises – a batting average of zero, which is apparently their idea of “exemplary” performance – why would any Keralite trust any promise by the BJP?
There is a need to understand why Mr Modi’s BJP has little to no appeal in the South. Investor interest in India is dictated, in many ways, by the openness of a society, education and literacy levels and maintenance of social harmony, in all of which the South scores highly. Our society has been shaped in an environment where decades of social reforms have led to a flowering of civic consciousness among followers of the three major religions: Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. Literacy levels and living standards are much higher than the North. Our history has also been different: for instance, Kerala has welcomed followers of every faith here for millennia, and all have come in peace and not by the sword. So the narratives that the BJP harps on in the North – communalism, religious division, chips on the shoulder about history, nativist social cleavages – don’t pass muster here. Ironically enough, for a party that claims to be focused on ‘vikas’, the region that actually enjoys the highest ‘vikas’ in real terms in India is the least receptive to the BJP’s agenda.
Also read: INDIA Will Reach Out to Voters in One Voice: Shashi Tharoor
Questions have been raised by members of the Left in Kerala that the Congress should not be taking in on its INDIA alliance partners in Kerala and it will affect the fight against the BJP on a national level. Has this left bad blood in the alliance?
As I’ve highlighted above, it is rather ironic that the Left has taken that stance. In my own constituency, the Left has put up a candidate whose campaign’s main focus is attacking me. I can turn around and ask them why they seek to divide the anti-BJP vote in Trivandrum, and preach alliance dharma in Wayanad! At the same time, I do not think that there is any bad blood in the opposition alliance. Unlike the BJP (which is known for its high-handedness to its allies) we possess the good sense to rally towards a common objective – forming a non-BJP government — once the elections are over. I assure you that the pro-India anti-BJP forces are strong as ever.
Since the INDIA alliance was first formed, you have lost allies like the JD(U), while some others like the TMC are contesting alone in crucial states like West Bengal. In Delhi where a seat-sharing arrangement was reached weeks ago, the Congress has just announced its candidates on Sunday even though the AAP had announced its candidates much earlier. Key members of the alliance are in jail like Kejriwal and Hemant Soren. As elections get underway, what are the prospects for the INDIA alliance on a national level in your opinion?
As I have said many times before, we came into this knowing that we are not going to get one simple answer every time. No one is going to have a one-size-fits-all solution. In each state, the political character of the state and its recent history mean that the story is going to be different. In Kerala, where the Left and the Congress-led UDF have been at loggerheads for 55 years, there’s not even the prospect of a discussion on it. But next door, in Tamil Nadu, we have a CPIM, CPI, Congress, Muslim League and DMK alliance which is in very good shape. In Delhi, AAP is with us and in Punjab they are not. That’s India. But once the results are in we will all be focused on the imperative need to change the Union government. That’s the ultimate objective of all of us, and on that I can say with great conviction, that we are on track.
As the Ramlila Maidan rally illustrated recently, despite the BJP using every dirty trick in its playbook – from the freezing of bank accounts, to the arrest of senior leaders just before the elections or leveraging the uneven advantage it enjoys on account of its deep coffers (augmented by the electoral bonds scheme which, as the data shows, reflects a sinister kind of corruption involving both extortion and bribery) – the INDIA alliance, as a whole, is united, spirited, and working towards a common goal of preserving the social fabric of our country.
