Shashi Tharoor - The mistaken freshman!

His ‘agglomerative Indian’ comment brought some dislike, and now its his ‘cattle class’ comment that makes me wonder if Shashi Tharoor is a little too over-educated for Indian Politics. For those who still contain that question mark on their face, I found it apt to launch our column, with some insight on the hot issue surrounding Tharoor and his ‘intelligent tweets’.

I was elated when the election results steered towards Tharoor’s dreams, not just, because he is a fellow Malayalee, but also because he is a prolific author, columnist, journalist and more. If anything, before being elected to the office of the Ministry of State for External Affairs, he held a much-coveted position of the UN Under-Secretary General, which later led him to come second to Ban-Ki Moon, in the race to the post of UN Secretary General. I even began to think, that Indian Politics had taken a turn for good with young and wise blood sweeping the elections with a majority (Arguably, at the age of 53, Shashi Tharoor would be categorized more under the latter). In today’s age of scraps, wall-posts and tweets, I was intrigued when Tharoor joined the second tier of ‘not-so-much-a-celebrity’ line of Tweeters. I looked at it from his point of view, where he wanted to be in pace with his subjects and more probably turn his office into a tech-savvy den. His fellow politicians made, his 10-minute tweet routine, sound like a time consuming activity, not allowing him to efficiently handle his ministerial affairs along with tweeting. I was thinking to myself, on how scornful could we get, when it is the exact critical ministers who have been putting away our Road and Power development projects, for ages. Ironically, a bunch of opposition party members followed suit of joining the Twitterati clan. Notable of them was Narendra Modi, who no one dared to criticize. Hence, I wondered if Shashi Tharoor is paying the freshman price.

His initial comments on how Force India’s victory can be seen, as a triumph for the agglomerative Indian, were misinterpreted by most of his followers. We Indians, well known for being scornful and masters of flouts, decided to quote him and brush off this win to a German car and an Italian Driver, whilst the ‘mistaken’ politician had intended the quote to be on a positive note stressing on how we standby the mantra of triumph in spite of diversity. If anything, we should have seen this victory as an answer to those absent-minded folks who still wonder if we travel on bullock-carts on unpaved roads. I read Tharoor’s quote with pride wondering how India had scripted its own legacy among the ‘big boys’. (Before I get too carried away with Force India and its laurels, I shouldn’t forget that Tharoor has my spotlight, this month)

And so trouble didn’t end with that for Shashi Tharoor; His latest response to a question dug his opponent’s trenches even deeper, thus helping them to solidify their case against his ‘socialite’ image. On twitter, a reporter had questioned him if, on his next visit to Kerala, he would travel cattle class? (In light of how some high profile ministers have been travelling economy class, thus trying to set an example to their comrades). Tharoor, wittily responded “Absolutely, in cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows." The moment he hit the ‘tweet’ button on his page from Liberia (on diplomatic mission), it was equivalent to ‘D’ Day by the coast of Normandy. Heavy artillery showered from every side. The words ‘cattle-class’ and ‘holy cows’ triggered everything from ministers, asking him to quit, to calling him an imbecile.

Unaware of all these developments, my usual morning checks on Shashi’s Tweets, gave me a reason to smile. His reference to the cattle class clearly was directed towards the poor policies of how airlines managed to herd the economy class passengers, as one would do to cattle. And the term holy cow was meant to refer to the sacrosanct issues or principles that no one dared to challenge, and not literally referred to any individual. I wouldn’t blame anyone who criticised Shashi on a knee-jerk instinct (as his humour is truly at a different level). I would lie, if I said that I got the humour on my first go. It did take me a while and a couple of re-reads for the frown to convert into a smile. With Tharoor and his humour, it’s more along the lines of waking up on the same side of the bed, yet being faced with something with a twist, everyday.

But asking him to quit his position was ridiculous. It forced me to wonder how some our cob-webbed politicians could be referred to some basic literature and humour classes. If anything I would commend Shashi Tharoor’s attempt on being accessible to the Internet population. Whilst being the best at complaining that our politicians are unaccountable and inaccessible, here you have a minister who has about 200,000 (and growing!) people subscribing to his feeds on Twitter. (To the world of twitter, it may seem to be a meagre number, but mind you we are talking about a land, where many are yet to even explore Google!). At times I wonder, even if he had this contempt against the general population, why would he even call them cows on a public domain such as Twitter. I would be furious, had his blabber been secretly taped and released. Forget firing him, I would even move a case for his deportation. But again, my emotions are zooming way ahead for we are talking Shashi Tharoor here. With his background as a ‘sarcy’-critical author, I would be amazed if his intelligent wits did not kick in.

True, Shashi would think twice before he tweets or even speaks at parliamentary procedures. That would be an unnecessary lesson learnt the harsh way. But if I were a freshman at politics, I too would first work towards establishing my foundation and building bridges at every career-junction, rather than strumming the wrong strings. If anything, I see Shashi Tharoor as prime-ministerial material in the near future, provided he plays his cards (to come), well and cautiously.

But before I end, this thought lingers, on how the journalist who asked Tharoor the controversial question about the cattle class, wasn’t brought to task; In fact, all that Shashi Tharoor did was repeat the term in the journalist’s query. I guess that is what may force the politician Shashi Tharoor to put the journalist in him, to sleep.

This article was written for the Indian Cultural Association @ York University, monthly newsletter, under the column name of Monthly Musings. The opinion mentioned here is truly personal and is not intended to hurt any person's opinion or feeling.