Shashi Tharoor says remarks on Rahul Gandhi's campaign were distorted

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has pushed back against media interpretations of his recent comments regarding the party's student outreach program, calling them a distortion of his views. Tharoor stated that his remarks were not an attack on the Congress or its leadership but rather an emphasis on the necessity for political parties to be more inclusive.

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It takes a particular combination of incompetence and malice for some media to interpret my conversation with Rishabh Shah at @iimunofficial as an attack on my own party or its leadership.

Speaking at an event in Maharashtra, Tharoor had initially agreed that the Congress's 'Chhatron ki goonj' campaign, aimed at engaging students on issues like paper leaks, did not resonate as much as a protest by another party. He suggested that established parties must be conscious of not providing a route into their ranks for certain groups and must listen to new voices to remain relevant.

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We need to ask ourselves what did we fail to do? Did we fail to listen? Was our finger missing from the pulse of the Gen Z?

However, Tharoor later took to X, formerly Twitter, to decry what he called a combination of incompetence and malice in the media's portrayal of his conversation. He shared the full, uncut video of his discussion at the India's International Movement to Unite Nations (IIMUN) in Mumbai, urging people to watch it and judge for themselves. His office also released a clip emphasizing his core message: that India's youth should not be passive observers and that parties must actively create leadership opportunities for the next generation.

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India's young people must not remain spectators to politics. Parties must open their doors, create pathways to leadership and give the next generation the power to shape our politics.