Assembly poll results a setback, Congress needs to get its act together: Shashi Tharoor

In the Assembly polls, Congress was neither able to retain power in Punjab nor could effectively challenge the incumbent in Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. In UP, a two-cornered race pushed the party to a distant margin.

The Assembly election results are a setback that many many people in the party are trying to come to grips with, said senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday.

He said, "Members of Congress G23 wrote a letter two years ago because they wanted things to get better. But not much change has happened since then," adding, "It is a concern that the party needs to get its act together."

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"As long as the party is an effective vehicle for advancing your own principles and values you hold dear, you should stay in the party and make the party a more effective place," Shashi Tharoor said.

He said, "I think Modi has unleashed some forces in society that are dividing our nation on communal and religious grounds, which, according to me, is introducing a toxin into our social ethos, and that is unfortunate."

"But he is only an individual. The things that are happening in the name of his party. I speak as an Indian citizen, I speak as a Hindu, I see someone being badly thrashed to make him say 'Jai Shree Ram' which he does not believe in, that's not my Hinduism," he said, adding, "When I see people being demonised because of their faith or principally identified by their faith rather than by their character is or what they are contributing to the country then, as an Indian citizen, I feel let down. So, all these things truly worry me."

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