However, while lauding economic strides, Tharoor criticized bureaucratic red tape, labour issues, and political hostility, pointing to investor suicides in Kerala.
Published Feb 15, 2025 | 6:16 PM ⚊ Updated Feb 15, 2025 | 7:21 PM
Shashi Tharoor. (X)
Synopsis: Shashi Tharoor’s article praising Kerala’s economic growth and startup boom sparked controversy within the Congress party. While he highlighted Kerala’s success, he also criticized bureaucratic issues and investor suicides. Kerala Congress leaders, including VD Satheesan and K Muraleedharan, dismissed Tharoor’s views, questioning the industrial environment and demanding clarification from the national leadership on his stance.
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has stirred controversy within his party with an article praising Kerala’s economic progress and startup boom. His piece, “Changing Kerala: Lumbering Jumbo to a Lithe Tiger“, published in The New Indian Express daily, drew sharp criticism from the state Congress leadership, with leaders questioning his claims and demanding a response from the national leadership.
In the article, Tharoor hailed Kerala’s booming startup ecosystem, citing the 2024 Global Startup Ecosystem Report, which valued it at $1.7 billion—five times the global average. He highlighted Kerala’s staggering 254% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between July 2021 and December 2023, compared to the global average of 46%.
“Startups have suffused India’s—especially Kerala’s—economy, becoming ubiquitous… Kerala is beginning to stand out as a model of economic innovation and sustainable growth,” he wrote.
However, while lauding economic strides, Tharoor criticized bureaucratic red tape, labour issues, and political hostility, pointing to investor suicides in Kerala.
“While many states have endured farmer suicides, only Kerala has recorded cases of investor suicide—when people have sunk their life savings into business ventures and seen them lost because of labour trouble, political hostility, and bureaucratic obstruction,” he wrote, advocating for an Investor Protection Act.
Tharoor also took a veiled jab at the ruling CPI(M), noting that the Left in Kerala has had to embrace capitalism for economic growth, much like the communists in West Bengal at the start of the 21st century.
“That this transformation has begun to occur under a communist-led LDF government seems astonishing… There is a perception that this attitude only holds when they are in government and that they will return to their bad old ways if they lose the next state elections in 2026,” he wrote, hinting at the CPI(M)’s history of labour militancy.
Tharoor’s upbeat assessment, however, did not sit well with the Kerala Congress leadership.
Opposition Leader VD Satheesan dismissed Tharoor’s assessment, arguing Kerala lacks an industry-friendly environment and questioned the claims of three lakh new enterprises.
“Kerala is not a state with a good industrial environment now. It needs improvement. We do not know under what circumstances and on the basis of what figures Tharoor wrote that article,” said Opposition Leader VD Satheesan.
Satheesan also questioned the state government’s claim of three lakh new enterprises in the last three and a half years, calling it an exaggerated figure.
He said the party will examine in what context Tharoor expressed such an opinion.
Senior leader K Muraleedharan insisted Tharoor’s views do not reflect the party’s stance and went a step further, demanding that the Congress high command clarify its stance.
“What Tharoor said is not the stand of the Congress in Kerala. His views are not something Kerala Congressmen can accept,” Muraleedharan asserted.
AICC general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh while not directly mentioning the Shashi Tharoor issue said, “The Indian National Congress is our country’s only political party where there is absolute freedom of speech as well as freedom of speech. Members give their views on issues which are, on occasion, their own and that do not reflect the opinion of the party as a collective entity. It is the party’s stance that is paramount.”
Senior Congress leader KC Venugopal criticising Shashi Tharoor’s recent article on Kerala’s economic progress, stated that the industrial sector in the state is in complete stagnation.
“Tharoor made a statement without understanding Kerala’s reality. If needed, we can ask him on what basis he made such claims,” Venugopal said.
He pointed out that the coir and fisheries sectors are struggling, while the cashew industry is in crisis, with workers demanding financial relief.
Former MLA KS Sabarinadhan acknowledged Kerala’s startup boom but argued that Tharoor should have included a broader set of metrics beyond the government’s “cherry-picked” data. He credited the 2014 Oommen Chandy government for laying the foundation of the startup ecosystem.
Indirectly addressing the CPI(M)’s claim that the LDF government led by Pinarayi Vijayan had enhanced the startup ecosystem of the state, Sabarinathan said, “Rome was not built in a day.”
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan hailed Shashi Tharoor’s article, calling it proof that the state has become industry-friendly.
Citing Tharoor’s data-driven analysis, he said Kerala’s startup ecosystem is now a world model, particularly in the IT sector.
CPI(M) State Secretary MV Govindan also praised Tharoor, highlighting Kerala’s rise from 28th to 1st place in industrial growth.
“Tharoor accurately presented Kerala’s fivefold global growth,” he said, congratulating him for showcasing the state’s achievements.
At the same time, in a bold response to criticisms, Shashi Tharoor stood firm in his article praising Kerala’s transformation under the Left government.
Speaking to the media in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday, Tharoor emphasized his commitment to acknowledging good governance, regardless of political affiliations.
“My style is to accept if the state or central government does something good and criticize if it does something bad,” he asserted.
Tharoor said his article was rooted in facts, backed by documents, dates, and numbers and not influenced by government information.
(Edited by Sumavarsha, with inputs from Dileep V Kumar)
