Shashi Tharoor attends meeting in Rahul Gandhi’s office signaling growing warmth in ties with Congress leadership

New Delhi [India], February 3 (ANI): When Congress leader Rahul Gandhi rose to speak in Parliament on Monday, there was a huge uproar from treasury benches over his remarks aimed at targeting the Modi government and the Lok Sabha proceedings saw repeated adjournments.
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and the Union Home Minister Amit Shah were present in the House when Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, began his speech on the motion of thanks to the President's Address. They urged the chair not to allow the Congress leader to quote from an unpublished book or a magazine article that cited the book.
Soon after the Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the first time in the day, Congress leaders started arriving at Rahul Gandhi's parliamentary office for a meeting.
After Rahul arrived in his office, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge also arrived. Priyanka Gandhi, who had left the Parliament premises, was requested to come back.
Party general secretary KC Venugopal also arrived, but the arrival of party MP Shashi Tharoor came as a surprise to political observers. Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi also arrived for the meeting, which lasted about 40 minutes.
This is the first time Tharoor has attended a meeting with Rahul Gandhi since his meeting last week with Gandhi and Kharge.
It seems that the thaw that emerged after the last week's meeting is giving way to warmth between Tharoor and the party leadership.
Many Congress leaders were seen talking about the thaw in hushed tones. Not only this, outside the House, Shashi Tharoor strongly defended Rahul Gandhi over his remarks and said that the party leader was not allowed to speak.
He indicated that the magazine article that Rahul Gandhi wanted to refer to was not about the armed forces but about the government's decisions. Tharoor said that the government was overreacting to the matter.
He noted that what Rahul Gandhi wanted to say is in the public domain.
Tharoor added that Jawaharlal Nehru had allowed discussions in the House even over the war with China.
Tharoor's "changed demeanour" has been widely noticed as he has previously avoided commenting on such matters and was seen to have strained ties with the leadership.
With only Tharoor, Kharge, and Gandhi present in last week's meeting and there are indications that Tharoor has been given some kind of assurance regarding the forthcoming Kerala assembly elections, signaling a warmth in his stance.
Many Congress leaders see this as a positive sign for the party ahead of the Kerala elections. (ANI)