Updated on: Nov 10, 2025 02:10 pm IST
Cong MP Tharoor’s birthday wishes for BJP veteran LK Advani, and subsequent defence of the ex-deputy PM’s politics, earned him a jibe from his own party
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s profuse praise, tagged with birthday wishes, for BJP veteran LK Advani may have earned him yet another “dissociation” from his own party, but it has provided the ruling BJP with ammunition, again, to attack the main opposition party.
“The Congress party should rename itself from ‘Indian National Congress’ to ‘Indira Nazi Congress’, because this is Indira Gandhi’s Emergency mindset and a Nazi way of behaving,” BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said on Monday, November 10.
He was reacting to the Congress saying that “like always” Tharoor was speaking in his personal capacity.
Ever since Tharoor’s original wishes for Advani, some social media users pointing to the former deputy PM’s past. Tharoor has been defending the controversial Rath Yatra that the BJP leader undertook in 1990 to demand a Ram Mandir, which has recently been built, years after the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid stood on land believed to be the birthplace of Lord Ram.
Tharoor’s argument is that “one incident” must not be seen as the definition of 98-year-old Advani’s career. He also cited the 1962 China setback and the Emergency during Congress PM Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi’s tenures.
“It was a very politically correct wish that has been given to stalwart Bharat Ratna Advani by Shashi Tharoor on his birthday. These are political courtesies we all maintain in public life. For that, they have issued a ‘fatwa’ against him. This shows Congress’s intolerance… This is not the first time this has happened… They can’t even stand their own MP extending political courtesy,” Shehzad Poonawalla told news agency ANI.
