Shashi Tharoor
NEW DELHI: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday said that the growing culture of loyalty to political leaders over commitment to ideas and principles is weakening India’s democracy. Without naming any individual or party, his remarks appeared to question the trend of leader-centric politics – including within his own party.“Each party’s insistence on loyalty to its leaders rather than to a set of convictions and the very principles undermines democracy,” Tharoor said, as part of a broader reflection on India’s political future. He observed that as public discourse becomes “increasingly shrilled and polarised”, there is “little space left for serious engagement with political values.”Tharoor said India’s political imagination had long been shaped by larger ideological movements such as cultural nationalism, socialism, religious revivalism and even communism. Referring to the 1991 elections, he noted that India had then begun a “remarkable tryst with liberalism,” recalling political scientist Francis Fukuyama’s essay ‘The End of History’, which described liberal democracy as “the high point… of humankind’s political evolution” and “final form of governance.” Tharoor has previously emphasised that his “first loyalty is to the nation” and not to any political organisation. “Parties are a means of making the nation better… Sometimes the parties feel that is disloyalty to them. That becomes a big problem,” he had said at a recent event in Kochi.His latest comments, made in the context of India’s evolving ideological landscape, once again underline his recurring call for politics rooted in principles rather than personality.The Thiruvananthapuram MP is known for making unsettling comments for Congress. His latest remarks come days after he courted controversy for defending veteran BJP leader LK Advani, saying his long career in public life should not be reduced to one episode. “Reducing his long years of service to one episode, however significant, is also unfair. The totality of Nehruji’s career cannot be judged by the China setback, nor Indira Gandhi’s by the Emergency alone. I believe we should extend the same courtesy to Advaniji,” he posted on X.The Congress leadership swiftly distanced itself from those remarks, with party spokesperson Pawan Khera saying, “Like always, Dr Shashi Tharoor speaks for himself and the Indian National Congress outrightly dissociates itself from his most recent statement.”
