‘Was On A Plane’: Shashi Tharoor Misses 2 Congress Meets, Adds To Speculation After Praise For PM

Last Updated:December 01, 2025, 14:28 IST

Shashi Tharoor's continued absence from major Congress meetings has become a topic of discussion amid the buzz over his repeated praise of PM Modi

Shashi Tharoor's office stated that he was in Kerala. (PTI File)

Adding to the speculation over his ties with the Congress, party MP and Congress Working Committee Member Shashi Tharoor on Sunday missed the meeting of the strategic group led by Sonia Gandhi on the winter session of Parliament.

The meeting at the residence of Sonia Gandhi, the party’s parliamentary chair, was to discuss the party’s strategy and was attended by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi.

When asked about it, Tharoor said, “I did not skip it, I was on a plane, coming from Kerala…"

He also skipped the all-party meeting. Tharoor’s office stated that he was in Kerala and was travelling back with his 90-year-old mother on a later flight. Due to campaigning for the local body elections, the General Secretary of the Congress, KC Venugopal, was also unable to reach Delhi for Sunday’s meeting.

Tharoor’s continued absence from major Congress meetings has become a topic of discussion amid the buzz over his repeated praise of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and PM Narendra Modi ahead of Kerala assembly elections next year.

Tharoor had on November 18 too missed a Congress meeting called on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) issue, citing ill health. However, questions arose when he attended PM Modi’s event a day earlier and even praised him.

Following his comments on PM Modi, Congress leader Supriya Srinate had said, “I didn’t find anything in the speech (of PM Modi) worth appreciating. I think PM must answer a lot of things. He was at an event of a newspaper. He should tell us what his problem is with fair journalism. He should have told us why is he not happy with those who show and speak truth. So, I didn’t see any reason to appreciate him. I don’t know how he (Shashi Tharoor) found one. I found it to be a petty speech. He criticised Congress there too. PM thinks of Congress day and night. This is amazing."

Tharoor, at a recent event in Dubai, had said that ideological purity won’t build a nation and Centre-state cooperation, even if between different political parties, is necessary. “We need to be sometimes willing to cooperate across ideologies…The problem is right now our politics seems to demand everybody has to be a purist ideologically that we will not see any merit on the other side or talk to anybody on the other side," said Tharoor at an Amrita News event in Dubai, a clip of which was circulated on X.

“Even a neutral post by me on a speech by the Prime Minister has been attacked as praising the Prime Minister…I didn’t say a single word of praise. I just described the speech. The point is that is the kind of atmosphere in our country right now," said Tharoor.

With ANI Inputs

News politics ‘Was On A Plane’: Shashi Tharoor Misses 2 Congress Meets, Adds To Speculation Ahead Of Kerala Polls

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