Congress MP Shashi Tharoor clarified that his comments at an IIMUN event in Mumbai were not an attack on the Congress party or its leadership.
Tharoor accused sections of the media of misrepresenting his discussion with Rishabh Shah regarding youth participation in Indian politics.
The controversy arose after Tharoor compared the response to Rahul Gandhi's 'Chhatron Ki Goonj' programme with student-led Gen Z protests at Jantar Mantar.
Tharoor Denies Targeting Congress Leadership Over Gen Z Remarks
He published the "entire video, uncut and unexpurgated" recorded on August 7 at the India’s International Movement to Unite Nations (IIMUN) conference in Mumbai and asked the public to view the clip and judge his remarks directly
Summary
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday denied targeting his party or its leadership when he compared the response to Rahul Gandhi's 'Chhatron Ki Goonj' programme with recent Gen Z protests at Jantar Mantar.
Tharoor had addressed the issue on Friday. He urged rival political groups to analyze their failure to engage with youth, speaking just one day before issuing his clarification. Certain media outlets twisted his words to misrepresent his core message, Tharoor said.
"It takes a particular combination of incompetence and malice for some media to interpret my conversation with Rishabh Shah at @iimunofficial as an attack on my own party or its leadership," Tharoor said in a post on X.
He published the "entire video, uncut and unexpurgated" recorded on August 7 at the India’s International Movement to Unite Nations (IIMUN) conference in Mumbai and asked the public to view the clip and judge his remarks directly.
Tharoor questioned their actual influence. New members often find themselves relegated to background roles at major rallies, standing behind veteran politicians. Political organizations must decide if youth will only perform "foot soldier" tasks or receive real power to drive change, Tharoor said.
His office later released a portion of his interaction to clarify the context. "Context is often more instructive than commentary. Beyond the noise lies Dr Shashi Tharoor’s point: India’s young people must not remain spectators to politics. Parties must open their doors, create pathways to leadership and give the next generation the power to shape our politics," his office stated.
Comparing Protests and Programs
The controversy stemmed from Tharoor comparing Rahul's 'Chhatron Ki Goonj' programme with the student-led Gen Z protests at Jantar Mantar last month. He said both platforms raised similar issues.
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When asked whether the 'Chhatron Ki Goonj' rallies had failed to resonate as strongly as the Jantar Mantar protest, Tharoor said, "Correct. And that’s why we need to ask ourselves what we failed to do."
"Did we fail to listen? Did we fail to tap into the old cliche of having our finger on the pulse of the people? Was our finger missing from the pulse of Gen Z? That’s something we really need to interrogate," Tharoor said.
He said established political organisations will cease to be relevant unless they listen to new voices.
"I think we really, as the American expression goes, need to wake up and smell the coffee. Let not our repertoire be that we will bypass and be irrelevant because we failed to listen," Tharoor said.
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