Intentionally or unintentionally, Shashi Tharoor has done it again – put the Congress, his party, on the defensive with two back-to-back remarks, one praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and two commending Kerala's CPM-led government. Tharoor might have been playing his brand of positive politics – acknowledging good things even if they happen on the other side of the political sphere.

The damage, however, has been done perhaps more for him than the Congress. In Kerala, his The New Indian Express article praising the Kerala government's pro-business push and the perceived advancement of the state's startup ecosystem has irked not just his party colleagues but also a wider section of party supporters.

Tharoor has been accused of drafting campaign material for the rival CPM at a time when the Congress is staring at the crucial local body and assembly bypolls due later this year and early next year, respectively. With the article, Tharoor put himself up for the wrath of not just his party colleagues but also ordinary party workers, if social media reactions are any clue.

The fact that Tharoor had to issue an explanation on his article proves that he has felt the heat. On his comment that Modi's US visit had yielded some positive outcomes for the Indian people, Tharoor explained that he spoke with India's interests in mind and that "we cannot always speak only in terms of party interest".

In his article on the Left government's pro-entrepreneurship push, he clarified on Sunday that he did not praise the CPM-led government but instead highlighted the state's progress in the startup sector. The Congress leader also clarified that he does not believe that the overall industrial environment in Kerala has changed.

The clarifications were warranted because of the ambiguity in his article. While Tharoor relied on startup rankings and investment data to drive home his point on the encouragement nascent ventures were receiving, he almost endorsed the CPM-led government's claims on its initiative called 'Year of Entrepreneurship' and ease of doing business measures.

"Just a couple of weeks ago, Kerala's industries minister P Rajeev announced that one can now open a business in Kerala in "two minutes". If true and not just hyperbole, this is an astonishing development," he wrote in the article.

"Under the state's "Year of Enterprises" initiative, over 2,90,000 MSMEs have been established, with significant investments and support for women and transgender entrepreneurs," Tharoor wrote, repeating the state government's claim which Congress leaders and media reports have already contested.

His critics from within the party say that Tharoor either fell for the CPM's propaganda or attempted to put the Congress in a crisis. Unlike some previous occasions, Tharoor has found himself lonely on the issue, with senior and junior leaders voicing their criticism openly. Former MLA K S Sabarinadhan, who was a prominent supporter of Tharoor when he chose to contest the AICC presidential election, reminded Tharoor that "Rome was not built in a day".

His argument was that Tharoor should have remembered that Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was the one who laid the foundations of Kerala's startup ecosystem. In his clarification on Sunday, Tharoor exactly did that.

"Tharoor is not an ordinary Congress activist. He claims to be a global citizen who has an academic outlook on issues. When such a person writes an article quoting unrealistic government stats alone without raising questions and doubts, he does not realise how it hurts ordinary party workers," Congress spokesperson Jinto John wrote on social media.

Tharoor's intention?
Congress leaders Onmanorama spoke to did not have a clear answer on Tharoor's intention behind the alleged praise of the Pinarayi government. However, they claimed it was neither innocuous nor naive.

"It's not at all innocent. He has done it before, also. He makes news by putting Congress on the defensive; remember his stand on issues like the SilverLine project, which was against the party's official stand initially.

"The latest article is like a campaign material for the Left government while we are running an aggressive campaign to tap into the clear anti-incumbency sentiments against the state government," a young Congress leader, popular on primetime TV debates, said.

Another leader, a Youth Congress functionary, said Tharoor's remarks amounted to 'backstabbing' the party. "Praising the rival party is something you should never do in an election year," he said.

The critics see Tharoor's statements both on the Modi-Trump meet and Kerala economy as an expression of his ongoing uneasy relationship with the Congress leadership. Sources close to Tharoor rubbished the criticisms as misinterpretations and over-reactions. "He should have been more careful in drafting the article," one of them said.