Stop praising Modi, Kerala Congress tells Tharoor

The Congress in Kerala has asked Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor to stop praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Soon after Modi invited him to join the Clean India campaign, Tharoor tweeted he was 'honoured to accept the invitation of PM @narendramodi to join Clean India campaign'.

Addressing reporters here Monday, Congress state vice-president and spokesperson M.M. Hassan said Tharoor has been praising Modi for a while.

"It's not just the Oct 2nd incident. Tharoor has been praising Modi to the hilt for some time now. Many Congressmen have still not understood what Modi has done to be praised so much," said Hassan.

The state unit of the Congress party is now mulling the possibility of approaching the national leadership on this issue, and Hassan's outburst can be seen as a warning to Tharoor.

Tharoor, ever since he won the first time from here in 2009, has remained aloof from the local leadership of the party.

Tharoor won the 2014 polls with a drastically reduced margin which fell from close to a lakh votes to under 15,000 votes.

Soornad Rajashekeran, another party vice president, in a release issued here Monday also pointed out that even though the Congress party is one where freedom of expression is concerned, Tharoor should immediately end this Modi praise because many of Tharoor's statements go against the party's overall interest.

Reacting to his party colleagues statements, Tharoor reacted through Facebook by saying " I am astonished that anyone would suggest that I am pro-BJP. I have a 30-year paper trail of published writings on my idea of India and my profound belief in India's pluralism. Being receptive to specific statements or actions of BJP leaders does not remotely imply acceptance of the party's core Hindutva agenda. The prime minister pitched his appeal as a non-political one and I received it in that spirit. I am a proud Congressman and a proud Indian. In short: not pro-BJP, just pro-India!," said Tharoor.