Synopsis: The contrast between Tharoor and Mamdani is stark. If Tharoor’s strength lies in articulation, Mamdani’s lies in mobilisation. If the former’s career has been defined by intellect, the latter’s ascent has been defined by organisation.

Shashi Tharoor’s recent effusive praise for veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani — calling him a “venerable” person and “true statesman” who has lived “an exemplary life of service” — has left India’s intellectual class, and his Congress party colleagues, gasping.

Coming from a party MP, who is expected to condemn a figure whom historian Ramachandra Guha once called “the most divisive Indian,” this gushing tribute may be more than a simple political courtesy; it could be a declaration of a new political centre.

A question that i

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