The Congress on Sunday dissociated itself from a social media post by party MP Shashi Tharoor, who described Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani as a “true statesman”.

In a post to mark Advani’s 98th birthday on Saturday, Tharoor praised his “unwavering commitment to public service, his modesty and decency, and his role in shaping the trajectory of modern India”.

The Thiruvananthapuram MP described the BJP leader as a “true statesman whose life of service has been exemplary”.

Several social media users questioned Tharoor’s praise for Advani, pointing to the BJP leader having led a campaign in the late 1980s and early 1990s to build a Ram temple in place of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

The Babri Masjid was demolished by Hindutva extremists in December 1992, triggering communal riots across the country. A Ram temple was constructed at the site after a Supreme Court judgement in 2019.

On Sunday, lawyer Sanjay Hegde was among those who, in response to Tharoor’s post, recalled Advani’s role in alleged communal conflicts. Hegde said: “Sorry Mr Tharoor, unleashing the ‘dragon seeds of hatred’ [to quote Kushwant Singh] in this country is NOT public service.”

To this, the Thiruvananthapuram MP argued that reducing Advani’s long political career to one episode, however significant, was unfair.

“The totality of [Jawaharlal] Nehruji’s career cannot be judged by the China setback, nor Indira Gandhi’s by the Emergency alone,” Tharoor said. “I believe we should extend the same courtesy to Advaniji.”

On Sunday evening, Pawan Khera, the chief of the Congress’ media and publicity department, said: “Like always, Dr Shashi Tharoor speaks for himself and the Indian National Congress outrightly dissociates itself from his most recent statement.”

Khera said the fact that Tharoor continues to make such statements while being a Congress MP and a member of the party’s working committee reflected the “essential democratic and liberal spirit” unique to the party.

Earlier this year, the Congress had also distanced itself from Tharoor’s praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s approach to the conflict between India and Pakistan in the wake of the attack on April 22 in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.

Tharoor, in an article for The Hindu, had described Modi’s “energy, dynamism and willingness to engage” as a “prime asset” for India on the world stage, adding that the prime minister deserved more support.

In response, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge had said that while his party believed in putting India first, “some people” placed the prime minister before the country.

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