Shashi Tharoor versus Narendra Modi.

They have both been trending on twitter. The news channels are going gaga whenever either of them sneeze or look at a fly. And everyone, from the chaiwalla to college students are talking about them.

So what’s the big deal? Who said what to whom? And more importantly, who is right and who is wrong? In the end, apart from that, there’s very little that matters.

Instead of going into what the media has already been rattling over the past couple of days, I shall directly go into what I feel about both the men in question, and the topic being so hotly discussed and deliberated upon.

Both the men need no introduction. Anyone with an iota of general knowledge know them both.

So, after the recent cabinet reshuffling which took place, Shashi Tharoor regained his place in the Ministry from which he had quit in 2010. Following which Narendra Modi at one of his election rallies referred to Tharoor’s wife as a “50 crore girlfriend”. To which Mr. Tharoor replied that his wife was priceless and said that to understand that one has to love a person, which Modi is incapable of.  One would not expect anything else from a man whose wife has just been taken a pot shot at in public.

However, the debacle doesn’t end there. BJP Vice President, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has gone on to respond to Tharoor by calling him an “International Love Guru” and suggesting that the Government should open a Ministry of Love Affairs for him.

Meanwhile, everyone seems to have an opinion on what has been going on. Even if they have no clue whatsoever, they are going ahead with the bandwagon and giving yet another uninformed opinion.

So here’s what I think about it from the bits that I know of both the people.

On the one hand, we have Shashi Tharoor.

I had met him briefly at a Model United Nations conference a couple of years back at Ethiraj College in Chennai where I was chairing the Security Council. Mr. Tharoor was the guest of honour. Till then, I didn’t know anything about him except what Wikipedia had to offer. Mrs. Tharoor (Sunanda Pushkar) had also been present there.

Having heard and read about Shashi Tharoor and his achievements, we were slightly apprehensive. After all, who knows how a high flying politician-diplomat might behave when he is confronted with 200 college kids, all of them far below his own intellectual standards. Surprisingly, however, he turned out to be one of the wittiest, most charming and entertaining speakers that I have come across till date. He interacted with everyone without any restraints whatsoever.

Following which, I started researching more on him. Not only reading about him, but also what he had to say on various different agendas. I even read ‘The Five Dollar Smile And Other Stories’ written by him, and absolutely loved it.

Shashi Tharoor is probably one of the few Indian politicians I have respect for. The reasons being:

• He is one of the few extremely well educated politicians around. Having graduated from St. Stephens, he went on to earn a Phd from  The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, arguably one of the finest institutions in the world, and that too at the age of 23.
• He is also one of the younger politicians India has, which means he doesn’t have to think twice in order to move his ass and get work done. 
• He has been the Under Secretary General of the United Nations, and was almost elected as the Secretary General, losing out by a very narrow margin to Ban-ki-Moon.
• Add to that, he is classy, well spoken, dignified and a good writer.

On the other hand, we have Narendra Modi. Now let us take a note at Mr. Modi’s credentials, shall we?

• Mr. Modi graduated with political science from Gujarat University. Nothing against GU, but it seems kinda bland when compared to a Phd from Fletcher.
• There are several links which connect him to the 2002 Godhra riots, which if proven, makes him a mass murderer and terrorist. And by the way, the links were strong enough for the United Kingdom to not deal with Modi in any way for a decade after the riots, and for the United States to deny him a visa on grounds of violations of religious freedoms. 
• He belongs to arguably the most right winged, fundamentalist, Hindu political party in the country and has been the Chief Minister of Gujarat for more than a decade.
• I would have appreciated his oratory skills, but shouting into a microphone with folded hands and inciting hatred doesn’t really count as a skill, so I’ll skip that part.
• Oh, and before you accuse me of being biased, yes, he has made Gujarat one of the fastest developing states in the country.

                                               

As for Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the less spoken of, the better.

Coming back to the point. It was also ironic to note that Modi, who himself has several scam allegations to his name calling Mrs. Pushkar a “50 crore girlfriend”. Even if she is, surely he should be the last person who has the right to call her that.

On a concluding note, these are the opinions I have gathered via reading newspaper articles, magazines, and watching the television. I refuse to make an uninformed opinion. And as a prudent man, this is the wisest conclusion I could come to: If anyone ever called someone I love something derogatory, and that too in public, I would not hesitate before throwing him into a pool full of piranhas. And besides, if anyone has the right to insult someone, he must have better credentials than the person being insulted. In this case, even that is clearly missing.

The least that a person can do when his wife is being publicly insulted is stand up for her. The fact that Tharoor hasn’t replied with anything insensitive to Modi shows what a gentleman he is, though personally, I think he should give the old guy a piece of his mind.

And the least that the Chief Minister of a State can do is maintain some dignity and decorum instead of taking unnecessary pot shots at people just to increase the TRPs and have a bunch of ignorant idiots hooting to his comments.

For the benefit of the readers:

Narendra Modi's comment on Shashi Tharoor's wife: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/narendra-modi-labels-shashi-tharoors-wife-a-rs-50-crore-girlfriend/1024013

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi's comment on Shashi Tharoor: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/shashi-tharoor-should-get-love-affairs-ministry-bjp-286610

                                                        A conversation I had on twitter