FOOFARAW OVER THE OUTLIER, GOP'S MOTHBALL SYNDROME

VER the past week, the ubiquitous, loquacious wordsmith Dr Shashi Tharoor, a four-time MP from Thiruvananthapuram, has dominated headlines in Indian media.

- SANJAY JHA

VER the past week, the ubiquitous, loquacious wordsmith Dr Shashi Tharoor, a four-time MP from Thiruvananthapuram, has dominated headlines in Indian media. Let us be honest, how many current politicians worldwide boast of his mind-numbing bio? This dapper outlier of Indian politics who almost became the UN Secretary-General would be a prized asset wherever he went. But in India's grand old party (born in 1885), Shashi has been frequently treated like a third shoe or fifth wheel. A wasted asset, like a Porsche convertible that only adorns a dilapidated garage.

Bedlam followed Shashi's uncharacteristic belligerence after a meeting with the Congress leadership (read, Rahul Gandhi): "I have options!" said the flamboyant charmer, albeit the newspaper was cleverly twisting that phrase. But in Indian politics, ideological fidelity can be as short-lived as the Ben Affleck-Jennifer Lopez marriage. Shashi beat that dubious trend, emerging since 2004 as probably the most admired brand ambassador of the idea of India, a secular, liberal nation, in synchronicity with the ideology of the Congress.

However, Shashi's discomfiture with the Congress became such a bombshell that it overshadowed US President Donald Trump's more nuclear utterances. Is Shashi Tharoor joining the BJP, asked flummoxed journalists. That would be like Elon Musk selling leaflets about Karl Marx's economic philosophy. So, what is going on?