'Wish I could draw Cong's attention to full range of my writings'

Congress Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor on Monday said he accepts the party’s decision to remove him as party spokesperson for praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but regretted that he did not get an opportunity to respond to the charges levelled against him by the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee.

Welcoming the action against Tharoor, KPCC President V M Sudheeran said it was an "appropriate decision."

In a statement posted on Twitter, Tharoor said he accepted the AICC's decision, adding he would have welcomed an opportunity to respond to the charges against him.

"While I have not yet seen the KPCC complaint referred to and while I would have welcomed an opportunity to respond to it and draw the attention of the AICC leadership to the full range of my statements and writings on contemporary political issues, I am now treating this matter as closed and have no further comment to make," he said.

"As a loyal worker of the Congress party, I accept the decision of the party president to relieve me as a spokesperson," Tharoor said.

Expressing deep resentment to his repeated praise of Modi and his initiatives like "Swachh Bharat" campaign, the KPCC had last week sought "appropriate action" from the AICC against Tharoor.

The report held that Tharoor's adulatory statements about Modi had hurt the Congress workers in Kerala, who had worked sincerely and tirelessly for his victory from Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat twice.

Though Tharoor had persistently held that his endorsement of the Swachh Bharat mission neither meant that he approved the "Hindutva agenda" of the Bharatiya Janata Party nor that he was moving closer to the saffron party, he chose to react sarcastically to the KPCC's move, which further antagonised sections in the party in the home state.

Image: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor was sacked as the party spokesperson on Monday