Thiruvananthapuram: The war of words between senior Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram M.P. Shashi Tharoor and former KPCC president K. Muraleedharan, MP, over the former's approach to Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a turn for the worse with each one questioning the other's credentials to articulate the party stand.
Firing the first salvo on Tuesday, Dr Tharoor said Mr Muraleedharan had returned to the Congress after eight years and hence had no idea of his allegiance to the party. While the state leadership was sharpening its attack on Dr Tharoor, he took to the twitter to answer his critics. "I've been a strong critic of the Modi government, & I hope a constructive one. My staunch defence of inclusive values& constitutional principles has won me 3 elections. I urge my fellow Congressmen to respect my approach even when they don't agree with it," tweeted Dr Tharoor.
He also wrote in an online news site, answering the critics. “The dung really hit the fan, especially in Kerala, where Congress leaders reacted as if they had caught me in the boarding-school tuck-shop with my hand in the cookie jar. Angry denunciations were issued by all and sundry; one dashed off an outraged letter to the interim party president Sonia Gandhi; another invited me to leave the party and join the BJP (the irony that it was barely eight years since he himself had rejoined the Congress after leaving it and attacking it for years, was not lost on many)".
The direct attack on Mr Muraleedharan, who had quit the Congress, formed his own party, and then rejoined it, was not lost on the Vadakara MP. “If Tharoor keeps eulogising Modi, then there will be no other way but to boycott him,” he said.
