KPCC president K Sudhakaran on Wednesday played down the alleged pro-CPM stand taken by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. "He has not said anything that is deeply damaging. He has not done any major harm as is made out," Sudhakaran told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram, referring to a column Tharoor had written for The New Indian Express. 

He said the issue has been done and dusted. "It is our responsibility to suppress (sic) the issue when a minor problem crept into a statement (made by Tharoor). I had called Shashi. We talked with mutual love and respect and told everyone that such things should not happen in the future, and a decision on these lines was taken at the party level. The issue is now over. It is finished," the KPCC chief said.

Sudhakaran said it was the media that was playing up the issue. "You are interpreting the issue and taking it to an extreme," he said.

He was reminded that the outbursts came from Congress leaders themselves. "There are people of varied personalities among leaders, and they will react accordingly. I believe these reactions do not come from any deeply felt anger," Sudhakaran said. 

If Tharoor had not said anything politically damaging, was the KPCC chief hinting that there has indeed been a solid improvement in Kerala's industrial climate under the LDF government? "I have not conceded that," Sudhakaran said. Even Tharoor's statement was conditional. He did not give them a full endorsement," he said.

At the same time, Sudhakaran also felt that Tharoor had not made an unintentional mistake. "I won't say it was a mistake. He spoke as if it (his admiration for Kerala's changed investment climate) was a half-truth. But the Congress stand is that he should not have said even this. Can we hang him for that? Now, the issue is over. Everyone has been asked to stop discussing the issue, and everyone has obliged," Sudhakaran said.

He also sounded certain that Tharoor would not attend the Startup event organised by DYFI. "Why should we attend a programme conducted by them. We don't expect him to go. We are fully confident that he would not go," Sudhakaran said.

Tharoor himself confirmed that he would not. "When they (DYFI leaders) came to invite me, I told them that there was no point in even holding a discussion. I will not attend," Tharoor told reporters on Wednesday.

However, the earlier comments of DYFI leaders who had gone to invite him did not suggest that Tharoor had behaved with them in such a brusque fashion. They said that he had wished them well but also said that he could not attend as he had prior appointments.

The prospect of Tharoor attending a DYFI programme has now vanished. Nonetheless, even a day after meeting Rahul Gandhi, Tharoor still stuck to what he said in his column. "I have cited the sources from which I had pulled the data for the article. If there are any other sources, I am willing to consider them," he said.

"As you all know, my writings are always backed by facts. I had cited the sources. The Global Startup Ecosystem Report, and the Ease of Doing Business ranking. Both are not CPM publications. If I am given a different set of data, I can easily revise (my position)," he said, and added: "I don't speak for anyone except Kerala."