Mattering to India: The Shashi Tharoor Campaign

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'Today’s Icarus may well be tomorrow’s Phoenix,’ says T. P. Sreenivasan, former ambassador and Shashi Tharoor’s long-time friend, in this personal narrative on the fight for the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat in 2009. This is the absorbing story of an extraordinary election in which Tharoor carefully orchestrated his campaign by highlighting his past accomplishments and promises for the future.

How did a virtual outsider, who was not proficient in the local language and had never lived in Kerala, overcome these impediments and generate a Tharoor wave? What was the contribution of local Congress leaders to the election of a candidate nominated by the high command? What role did campaigners from across the seas play? How effective was the e-campaign? How did Tharoor command support across castes and religions? How did his fame as an international civil servant and writer influence his election?

These and many other questions are examined in the course of this detailed account of the campaign. Sreenivasan briefly reviews the developments after Tharoor’s victory and the controversies that led to his resignation, and concludes that we have not heard the last of Tharoor as a politician. Though focusing on Thaoor specifically, the book also presents the perspectives of several other campaigners and observers, and offers rare insights into electoral processes in India and the strategy of the candidate.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR T P Sreenivasan

T P Sreenivasan has remained as active in his ten years of retirement as he was in his thirty-seven years as a diplomat in different parts of the globe. He set up a foreign affairs think tank, helped the IAEA set up the plan for 2020, served on the National Security Advisory Board, participated in an election campaign, worked at the Brookings Institution in Washington, set up the NSS Academy of Civil Services, produced a weekly television show on international affairs, taught at the Central University and advised government of Kerala on education policy. He published three books, maintained a regular stream of writings during this period and delivered a large number of lectures on a variety of subjects. Today, he is one of the most sought-after commentators and speakers across the country.