The Congress on Wednesday said it saw no reason to appreciate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Ramnath Goenka Lecture and expressed surprise that party MP Shashi Tharoor chose to praise it.
Responding to a question on Tharoor’s remarks, Congress leader Supriya Shrinate said that she did not find anything in the speech worth appreciating, adding that she did not understand how Tharoor had found any reason to praise it.
Tharoor had described Modi’s address as a mix of “economic outlook and a cultural call to action, urging the nation to be restless for progress.” Modi delivered the sixth Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture in New Delhi on Monday.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP also said he was “glad to have been in the audience,” noting that Modi spoke of India’s “constructive impatience” for development and stressed the need for a post-colonial mindset.
Shrinate dismissed the speech and called it “petty.” She also questioned the prime minister’s criticism of the media, saying that he should explain what his problem was with fair journalism. She added that he should have clarified why he was unhappy with those who show and speak the truth.
She further said that Modi’s comments about the Congress during his address showed that “PM thinks of Congress day and night.”
This is not the first time Tharoor has publicly taken a different line from the party. Earlier this month, Congress distanced itself from one of his social media posts praising BJP leader and former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani as a “true statesman.” Many social media users had questioned Tharoor’s remarks by pointing to Advani’s role in the Ram temple movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Tharoor defended his post by saying that reducing Advani’s long political career to one episode, however significant, was unfair.
In July, the party had again separated itself from Tharoor’s comments after he praised Modi’s handling of India–Pakistan relations following the April 22 attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam. In his article for The Hindu, Tharoor wrote that Modi’s “energy, dynamism and willingness to engage” were a “prime asset” for India and said the prime minister deserved more support.
In response, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had said the party always put India first, but “some people” placed the prime minister before the country.