A map of India in Shashi Tharoor’s campaign platform for the Congress chief’s election that omits portions of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh caused a stir. After social media users, mainly BJP fans on Twitter, where he has more than 8 million followers, pointed out the incorrect map, he released a revised version, according to the news agency.
In an effort to divert criticism from the BJP directed at Rahul Gandhi’s ongoing “Bharat Jodo Yatra,” the Congress tried to dissociate itself from the “egregious blunder.”
On social media, several referred to the incorrect map as “a major mistake” and “terrible conduct,” and others even charged him with having “a divisive goal.”
Jairam Ramesh, the director of communications for the Congress, claimed that the BJP is using “any flimsy reason” to attack party leader Rahul Gandhi’s “Unite India March.”
While a correction was made, neither Mr. Tharoor nor his staff provided any more explanation.
Shashi Tharoor, a former union minister, was involved in a map-in-a-booklet incident for the second time in three years. He disseminated advertising materials from a Kerala Congress demonstration against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in December 2019 that had a comparable issue. After the BJP’s IT Cell and officials like Sambit Patra attacked him, he removed that tweet. “Depict not the geography but the people of India,” he had stated in reference to the map.
In relation to the most recent controversy, he utilised a map with a network of dots to symbolise Congress units spread over India in his manifesto booklet, which bore the slogan “Think Tomorrow, Think Tharoor.” It was different from the official map of India, which shows Pakistan and China-occupied territory in Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh.
In the polls for the Congress, Shashi Tharoor is the major rival of Mallikarjun Kharge, the party’s Rajya Sabha leader, who is currently in the lead due to what appears to support from the Gandhis. The third contender in the election on October 17—the results of which will be announced two days later—is former Jharkhand minister KN Tripathi.
Sonia Gandhi, the interim president of the Congress, and her son, Congressman Rahul Gandhi, aren’t running for office in this election for the first time in more than 20 years. In reality, the family asked that a non-Gandi accept the position to refute accusations of nepotism.
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