CPI casts doubt on Tharoor’s political loyalties following Congress leader’s praise of Modi’s global health diplomacy during COVID-19

Communist Party of India (CPI) has sought to cast aspersions on Shashi Tharoor’s political loyalties by questioning his purported praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “vaccine diplomacy” during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In an article published in an English news weekly on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the national lockdown, Mr Tharoor projected the Central government’s decision to supply two major COVID-19 vaccines produced in the country to 100 nations as a master stroke of global health diplomacy. 

He noted the gambit as a “powerful example of international leadership and solidarity,” notwithstanding the criticisms about the vaccines’ efficacy and arguably shoddy management of the pandemic, including deaths caused by the non-availability of medical oxygen, medicines, and hospital beds in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)- ruled States in North India. 

Mr Tharoor also claimed that diplomacy was an extension of Vasudeva Kudumbakam’s philosophy, a catchphrase used by the Sangh Parivar to portray the world as one family. 

In a post on X, CPI State Secretary Binoy Viswam said that Mr Tharoor has again praised Mr Modi. “It shows how weak he (Mr Tharoor) is in understanding the Gandhi-Nehru legacy of his present party. Nobody knows how long he (Mr Tharoor) will remain in Congress. Welcome signals have already come from Mr Modi’s party”, he added. 

Mr Tharoor had come under intense criticism from the Congress for praising the Modi government’s Ukraine policy and the Prime Minister’s summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, which was at variance with his party’s national line. 

However, the BJP in Kerala endorsed Mr Tharoor, with the then-BJP State president K. Surendran lauding the Congress leader’s “candour”. 

He wrote that Mr Tharoor had “rescinded” his earlier opposition to Mr Modi’s foreign policy and spotlighted the Prime Minister’s “diplomatic success.” 

Mr. Surendran highlighted a supposed dichotomy between Mr. Tharoor and Rahul Gandhi’s perspectives on the Modi government. 

Mr. Tharoor’s approval of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government’s “success” in the start-up sector had earned the ire of Congress leadership, prompting the AICC to summon Mr Tharoor for a private meeting with Mr. Gandhi in New Delhi. 

For his part, Mr Tharoor had clarified that he did not philosophically empathise with BJP’s larger political line. He said he reserved the right to air his independent opinion in international matters.