New Delhi: Congress Working Committee member and MP Shashi Tharoor, who has of late been at odds with his party on issues related to BJP's stand on national issues, is scheduled to receive the first Savarkar Award on Wednesday from HRDS (High-range Rural Development Society) India, an organisation known for its Sangh Parivar affiliation. However, Tharoor’s office has said he will not attend the event.
Tharoor had said yesterday that he had no idea who had announced the award and that he was hearing about it for the first time.
“I only learned about this announcement yesterday in Kerala, where I had gone to vote in the local self-government elections. There in Thiruvananthapuram, responding to media queries, I had clarified that I was neither aware of, nor had accepted, such an award and it was irresponsible on the part of the organisers to announce my name without my having agreed to receive it” Tharoor posted on X.
HRDS India, headed by Ajai Krishnan, is an organisation that has been involved in several controversial dealings, including in Kerala. It earlier made news for employing Swapna Suresh, an accused in the gold smuggling case.
At Wednesday's event in Delhi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is to present the Savarkar Award to Tharoor. HRDS leader Ajai Krishnan told the media that Tharoor had confirmed his participation. He said the award was being given in recognition of Tharoor’s stance on issues including Operation Sindhoor.
However, it is all too easy to read into the selection of Tharoor, as a ploy to placate Tharoor and pull him out of loyalty to the Congress, which made him an MP from Thiruvananthapuram four times in a row, dspite some ripples of differences of opinion on certain issues recently.
The organisation has selected seven people for the inaugural award named after Savarkar, a Hindutva hardliner who apologised to the British, abandoned the freedom struggle, and was an accused in the Gandhi assassination case. Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha will be the chief guest at the ceremony.