‘A dog’s tail can never be straightened even if placed in a pipe for years’

-an Indian proverb

Every political party is a marionette that dances to the puppeteer’s tug on the strings. For the Congress monikered the ‘grand old party’ for being in political limelight governing post- independence India for more than 54 years, the puppeteer has been the ‘high command’, synonymous with the Nehru-Gandhi family, which had headed successive Congress governments. From Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s first Prime Minister to Rahul Gandhi, his great grandson, widely considered as Prime Minister-in-waiting. A wait considered by many a vain exercise. Should Rahul occupy the coveted ‘chair’  the opposition must first unseat the BJP, well entrenched in power since 2014 captained by the ruthlessly authoritarian, loud and unchallenged leadership of that party’s puppeteer- Narendra Modi, who in turn dances to the string-tugs of the RSS.

The Congress ‘high command’ has been charged with not letting go of the party’s reins. When it ought to have on numerous occasions resulting in capable and dynamic leaders, many of them not belonging to the Nehru clan deserting the party disillusioned and frustrated at being sidelined. Their ability, loyalty and capability denied due recognition. This results from the high command’s hesitation to ruffle the feathers of power-centers in the states.  

A glaring example is party loyalist Madhavrao Scindia’s son Jyotiraditya Scindia leaving the Congress frustrated at the high command ‘s preference for Kamal Nath, the party’s tired and spent old warhorse in Madhya Pradesh, who should have been replaced for somebody younger, energetic, and efficient. Scindia jr saw greener pastures in the BJP which welcomed the ‘big catch’ with open arms. He is the Union Minister of Communications in the current NDA government.

 The Madhya Pradesh fiasco was almost enacted in Rajasthan, with the high command persisting with an aged and clueless Ashok Gehlot, instead of passing the baton to the party loyalist late Rajesh Pilot’s son Sachin pilot banished to the sidelines. The Sachin- high command relationship is receiving palliative care at the moment.

The high command’s seemingly incurable malady of preferring demented and toothless old warhorses over efficient and imaginative younger generation of leaders sent its damaging tentacles to Kerala recently.

Incidentally, Kerala is one of the very few cul-de-sacs within India with reasonable political presence. Kerala’s electorate still prefers governance alternating between Congress led-UDF and CPM-led LDF. Though the state has till date shut its door to the BJP, the lotus party has increased its vote share noticeably in recent elections.

The Congress high command seems hell-bent to keep the troika of Ramesh Chennithala, VD Satheeshan and K Sudhakaran, its Working Committee member, Kerala’s current opposition leader, current President of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee respectively, who will be referred to hitherto as ‘the triumvirate’ for convenience, in good humor. The high command which feigns selective malfunction of its senses have apparently decided to please the triumvirate overlooking the fact that,   left to themselves, the three habitually   behave worse than canines fighting over a bone, sowing disunity in a pocket borough of a fast-dwindling Congress presence in India, besides disillusionment among Kerala’s grassroots Congress workers, and the discerning Kerala electorate.

The triumvirate has been given a free hand by the high command in furthering Sashi Tharoor’s disenchantment with the Congress in Kerala and his outsider image within that party.

Tharoor was an Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and had unsuccessfully ran for the Secretary General in the UN before testing waters in Indian politics by joining the grand old party. Currently he is representing the Thiruvananthapuram constituency in Parliament for the fourth successive term as a Congressman.

Tharoor is known to speak his mind, which is taboo to the high command, which still suffers from the hangover of coterie and ‘chamcha’ politics, characterized by prostrating before, and receiving halleluiahs. Popularized and demanded by the likes of Indira Gandhi and her younger son Sanjay in heady older times.

Kerala’s triumvirate, probably threatened by Tharoor’s suaveness and his national stature, has been striving to disregard him. Tharoor has been a loner as a Congressman in Kerala. Functioning as an outsider. Thanks to the triumvirate, who made sure the khadi did not fit Tharoor as well as the three-piece suit and the tie he donned at the UN, which he has been used to, unlike the marketplace ambience of the Parliament and state Assembly. Tharoor’s last-minute, yet consistent victories in Kerala’s capital city have progressively been witnessing erosion of victory margins. His struggle to win has quadrupled resultant of cross-voting tactics encouraged on the sly by the triumvirate.  Tharoor has expressed his displeasure at the triumvirate’s under-the-table mechanizations to the high command, which for familiar reasons chose to support the latter, despite their disruptive influence on the party surviving by the skin of its teeth.

The triumvirate’s recent efforts to elbow out Tharoor from the Congress has earned the victim’s displeasure who even dropped hint about his possible exit from the grand old party, which could be disastrous for it nationally.

What sin did Tharoor commit to deserve the shove? He apparently committed two sins. Firstly, he praised Prime Minister Modi for strengthening Indo-American ties by bolstering trade and buying American arms. Secondly, he praised the much-improved investment mileu in his home state through an article in the February 14 edition of the national daily New Indian express in 2025 captioned ‘changing Kerala: lumbering Jumbo to a lithe tiger’, in  which he praised the much-changed investment scenario in his state. 

To a nonpolitical reader like me, the article seemed a document in which the author sang paeans strewn with caveats for the right steps Kerala had started to make at long last to erase its disrepute as one of the most investor-unfriendly states. The article could be excerpted as ‘Kerala is beginning to stand out as a model of economic innovation and sustainable growth. It needs to update its laws, slash regulations and streamline government processes’. The triumvirate connived to use the article as an instrument against Tharoor.  Out of blatant cunning and clear political opportunism they charged Tharoor of praising the bête noire of Kerala’s Congress, the ruling Left Democratic Front for improving Kerala’s investor credentials. Congress leader KC Venugopal, one of high command’s chamchas from Kerala joined the triumvirate to throw stones at Tharoor. Even rusted and moth-eaten Congress ‘leaders’ like PJ Kurien was vociferous against Tharoor.

The Congressmen seem to have forgotten that worthy issue-based bouquets to the opposition also contribute to healthy democracy than blatant and incessant brickbats thrown at them. That freedom of expression to party men immensely adds to crucial inner-party democracy and growth.

That Tharoor hasn’t taken the threesome’s conniving lightly was evident by his questioning the high command about his ‘role in the Congress’, and hints at ‘other options’. Other constituents of Kerala’s ruling UDF advised the Kerala unit of Congress to bury the Tharoor hatchet and move on, with crucial elections to local Self-Governing bodies approaching.

Tharoor’s patience has waned. Kerala’s discerning citizenry foresees Tharoor of switching loyalty with the BJP, which looks sturdier and destination-sure than his own sinking political outfit.

The entire nation watches with bated breath the high command’s reaction to the Tharoor irritant. Will it ditch tharoor to persist with the triumvirate, who spells disunity, disaster and extinction for the Congress in Kerala, thereby qualifying for worse ‘sinners’ than Tharoor?

 Only time will tell if the high command will continue to be the proverbial dog’s tail that refuses to straighten out even if placed in a pipe for eons by creating a Scindia out of Tharoor.