Overview
- Tharoor delivered the inaugural Jyoti Komireddy Memorial Lecture in Hyderabad on November 13 on the theme 'Radical Centrism: My Vision for India'.
- He argued that parties’ insistence on loyalty to leaders rather than principles undermines democratic practice.
- He said the Congress has become more leftist in recent years as a tactical response to the BJP, contrasting this with a centrist phase from 1991 to 2009 under leaders like Manmohan Singh.
- He called for reclaiming a native liberalism grounded in India’s intellectual heritage and presented radical centrism as a third path between left and right.
- He lamented the erosion of political civility, citing Nehru’s recognition of Vajpayee, and his recent defense of L.K. Advani drew a public dissociation from the Congress spokesperson.