The Congress in Kerala has fallen into a state of confusion with regard to its demand for disciplinary action against party MP Shashi Tharoor over his alleged tendency to praise Prime Minister Narendra Modi "on all available occasions" following a report that his wife Sunanda Pushkar had died of poisoning.
The State party leadership cannot go back on its demand for action against Tharoor considering the anger of the partymen towards him over the alleged Modi-praises but pressurising the high command for that at this juncture might amount to giving ammunition to the BJP to attack the Congress, it feels. "It is, I must admit, is a Catch-22 situation," admitted a Congress leader.
The difficulties in which Tharoor is finding himself in, have created problems for the Congress of Kerala, where he does not have many political supporters, are many. Though there are several leaders who want the truth of Sunanda Pushkar's mysterious death to come out, they cannot at any cost make it a point of discussion within the party or outside.
If they make it an issue out of their personal dislike for Tharoor, they will have to answer questions about their own decision to make him - or at least accept him as - a party candidate in the 16th lok Sabha election before which allegations over the death of Sunanda Pushkar had been raised.
Faced with this question the other day, former State Congress president K Muraleedharan MlA chose to take the easy way out. He said the party had made Tharoor a candidate in Thiruvananthapuram for the second time believing his version about the death of his wife and that it was up to the court to take a decision on the case.
The confusion in the party had become obvious the other day, when State Congress president VM Sudheeran, who had three days ago vehemently attacked Tharoor for his alleged pro-Modi stand, said rather calmly, "We have sent a report to the high command requesting it to take a decision. That is all I have to say about it."
Irked by Tharoor's Twitter tweet accepting Modi's invitation to join the Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan, the State Congress had on Thursday submitted to the high command a report detailing the pro-BJP and pro-Modi statements he had allegedly made and asking for quick and stringent action against him.
The high command had handed over the report to the disciplinary committee headed by Congress Working Committee member AK Antony for follow up. Though many in the national leadership also feel that it is absolutely necessary to put some controls on Tharoor, the disclosure of the report on Sunanda's death has changed the priorities altogether.
Despite all these problems, Tharoor is trying to put up a bold face even in the face of the demand for a CBI probe into his wife's mysterious death. "let the current police probe be over first," he said the other day. Asked about the demand for a CBI probe from Ashok Kumar, a relative of Sunanda Pushkar, Tharoor said, "Who is heIJ I have never met such a person."
To complicate things further for Tharoor, an election case is going on in the Kerala High Court based on a petition filed by a BJP leader. The petitioner has demanded scrapping of his election as MP because he had not divulged the details of the assets he had got from Sunanda Pushkar in the affidavit submitted along with the nomination.
The Congress MP has replied that he had not hidden any information from the Election Commission. In a statement filed in the court, he said he had not acquired any assets of his late wife individually or jointly with her son as her movable and immovable assets were not yet ascertainable or estimable.
Tharoor termed as absolutely false the allegation that he had inherited a substantial portion of Sunanda Pushkar's wealth by virtue of the Hindu Succession Act as at the time of her death, Sunanda was not an Indian citizen nor a person governed by the Act. He added that his late wife was a Canadian citizen.