New Delhi, 13 October 2014

Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor was Monday sacked from the post of Congress spokesperson, a statement from the party said here.

“Congress President Sonia Gandhi has accepted recommendation of AICC (All India Congress Committee) disciplinary committee to remove Shashi Tharoor from the list of spokespersons of the AICC with immediate effect,” it said.

Tharoor, a Lok Sabha member from Thiruvananthapuram constituency, was a union minister in the erstwhile Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.

Background:

The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) had wanted action against Tharoor for his praise of Narendra Modi and accepting the Prime Minister’s invite to him to participate in ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign.

KPCC president V M Sudheeran said praises lavished on Modi repeatedly by Tharoor had hurt Congress and UDF workers who worked sincerely and tirelessly for his victory in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency for a second time.

The matter was taken up by the three-member disciplinary action committee of AICC, comprising leaders Motilal Vora, A K Antony and Sushilkumar Shinde before the Congress president Sonia Gandhi decided to remove Tharoor from the post.

Tharoor’s statement

I have seen the press release issued by the AICC and, as a loyal worker of the Congress Party, accept the decision of the party president to relieve me of my responsibilities as a spokesman.

I am in politics to serve the people of India, and my constituency, Thiruvananthapuram, through my service to the Congress party. This I have always done with utmost sincerity and commitment and I will continue to do so. Whatever responsibilities the party has entrusted to me I have fulfilled without reservation, and I fully recognize it is the prerogative of the party to alter these responsibilities.

While I have yet not 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 statement and writing on contemporary political issues, I am now treating this matter as closed and have no further comment to make.