Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan: Congress intrigued as Narendra Modi invites Sashi Tharoor to be the brand ambassador of the campaign

NEW DELHI: Congress circles were intrigued after PM Modi scored a brownie point at the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan launch by announcing the name of its high-profile MP, Shashi Tharoor, as one of his chosen nine invitees to be brand ambassadors of the campaign.

Tharoor, currently out of India, tweeted later, "honoured to accept the invitation of PM @narendramodi to join Clean India campaign. Just landed in Bucharest &heard d news. Action on return." His second tweet said, "Clean India is4all." Probably after the buzz in political circles that he had grown friendly with Modi because of these tweets and a preceding one praising PM’s UNGA address ("Strong speech by PM at UNGA 2014. Soaring internationalism, support for democracy & environment, anti-terrorism. Good reply to Pak"), late in the evening Tharoor also tweeted, "I am not a fan of tokenism. CleanIndia is a great campaign but challenge will be2sustain it beyond a week of photo ops. Mindsets must change."

An earlier tweet had also endorsed Michael Kugelman’s assessment of Modi’s US trip as "long on pageantry and short on substance". Given his professional knowledge and interest in international affairs, some felt, giving a political colour to his comments may be inappropriate, if not premature.

Incidentally, Tharoor’s bete noire, Lalit Modi, who lifted the veil on ‘IPL sweat equity scam that forced Tharoor’s exit from the UPA ministry for a while, recently got back his passport.

Congress Rajya Sabha member and Tharoor’s ex-IPL buddy Rajiv Shukla tried to down-play the issue.

"Any conclusion like Tharoor inching towards BJP should not be drawn on the pretext of somebody being invited for a function by the government. That should not be the basis of any speculation about any individual. But at the same time, I think that everybody should have been invited. Why only one or two individuals?," Shukla said.