Gift of books: Tharoor couldn't fill a shelf in 14 years, how will Siddaramaiah fare in 5

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Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. Image made on Canva

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah might not require the help of Shashi Tharoor to manage his cabinet, but he may want to listen to his party colleague on matters of books.

The other day, Siddaramaiah declared that he has decided not to accept flowers or shawls given as a mark of respect. "People can give books if they want to express their love and respect in the form of gifts," he tweeted.

Member of Parliament, Tharoor, was able to resonate with the idea.

"When I became an MP & Minister fourteen years ago I also requested publicly that people not massacre gardens for me, & that I would prefer books," quote-tweeted the Congress leader.

The problem though, as the Thiruvananthapuram MP figured out was that "the request was publicly applauded and then widely ignored".

And so, the 'bouquets & shawls' outnumber the readable content he gets gifted. "I give away the very many to those who might derive pleasure from them, but I keep the books," said the celebrated author.

Even so, 'in a decade and a half' that the bibliophile has been a representative of the people, so few are the number of books he's been gifted "that there are not quite a shelf full".

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