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Thiruvananthapuram, Oct. 28: For Shashi Tharoor, the flamboyant MP who represents the Kerala capital, today’s cabinet rejig comes as sweet vindication.
It marks the former UN diplomat’s evolution as a politician since the days he seemed a greenhorn unfamiliar with the pitfalls in Indian public life and was viewed by many party colleagues as an “outsider” more at home on Twitter.
It’s no secret that the man who won hands down from Thiruvananthapuram in 2009 never enjoyed any real support within the state Congress.
Local Congress leaders, therefore, shed no tears when Tharoor had to quit as junior foreign minister in April 2010 following a controversy involving stakes in the Kochi IPL team.
However, Tharoor was determined to fight it out. A series of calculated moves followed, the first being to part ways with his trusted officer on special duty, Jacob Joseph, whose “authoritarian” ways had apparently upset many in the party and the media.
Tharoor also became more active in his constituency. He focused on bread-and-butter issues, taking up problems from LPG shortage to garbage woes. He also attended weddings.
Today, he said: “I am grateful for the confidence... placed on me. I came back to India after a long time away in order to make contribution to our country.”
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