What the Congress party does is its business, but in the manner in which it has dealt with Shashi Tharoor, it seems that the grand old party has decided to cut off its nose to spite its face. Tharoor is a veteran Congressman, who has been a four-time Lok Sabha MP contesting on the Congress symbol, apart from being a minister in the Congress-led UPA government. He has not, as yet, ever said that he intends to leave the party or join another one. Why, then, would his party resent the fact that the BJP, which the Congress opposes, had no better individual than him to lead an all-party delegation to global capitals post Operation Sindoor?

If anything, the Congress should have capitalised on this choice. Whatever personal animosity Rahul Gandhi and his coterie may have against an individual, it was a great opportunity to stress the point that when it comes to national interest, only a Congress leader can do the job effectively.

Imagine a scenario where, after the BJP announced that Tharoor would lead the all-party delegation, Rahul Gandhi had convened a press conference, publicly congratulated Tharoor, and said that the BJP, faced with no other equally convincing choice, had no option but to come to the threshold of the Congress to represent India’s interests. Most people—aware of the tensions between Tharoor and his party leadership—would have........

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