At a time when the Congress-led opposition in Kerala is trying hard to find loopholes in the state government's works to contain the coronavirus spread, party MP Shashi Tharoor has praised health minister KK Shailaja whose leadership abilities have gained global attention.
Tharoor on Thursday night tweeted a story in the British newspaper The Guardian which hails Shailaja as the 'coronavirus slayer'.
"A lovely piece about Shailaja Teacher, the health minister at the centre of Kerala's #Covid19 response. She has been omnipresent and effective, and deserves the recognition," Tharoor wrote on Twitter sharing the story and tagging the minister.
However, Tharoor went on to write that, "Kerala's society and people, above all, are the heroes of this story." The opposition party ever since the beginning of the virus containment measures has been trying to ascertain that the government alone cannot take the full credit for effectively flattening the infection curve.
Tharoor's praise for Shailaja has amused several netizens who praised his generosity to recognise the works of a rival party leader.
"It's so heart-warming to see an opposition leader praising the government & giving credit where it's due. This is what makes Kerala different. We come together as a community to fight crisis irrespective of our political ideologies or religion," one of them commented.
In the past, Tharoor had invited criticism from within for saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi must be praised when he does something praiseworthy.
The Guardian article by Laura Spinney starts with Shailaja trying to find out from one of her deputies if the new dangerous virus from China would come to Kerala. It was as early as on January 20. The article goes on to narrate how Shailaja's experience of working during the Nipah virus outbreak helped her lead the fight against coronavirus. It also dwells into her upbringing as a communist.
Kerala's effective measures to contain the virus has grabbed the attention of global media including The Washington Post.
During the earlier days of the virus outbreak, leader of the opposition in Kerala Ramesh Chennithala had invited public wrath for calling Shailaja a 'media maniac' for conducting regular press conferences on the coronavirus situation in the state.
