Overview
- Tharoor said parties’ insistence on loyalty to leaders over principles undermines democracy.
- He made the remarks during the Jyoti Komireddy Memorial Lecture on radical centrism in Hyderabad on November 13.
- He argued Congress has become more left-leaning due to tactical responses to the BJP, contrasting this with the 1991–2009 centrist phase under leaders such as Manmohan Singh.
- He stressed that his comments addressed convictions and ideology rather than practical seat-level politics.
- The lecture followed controversy over his defense of L. K. Advani, after which Congress’s Pawan Khera said Tharoor speaks for himself and the party dissociates from his statement.