In politics, victimhood is not always a consequence. Very often, it is a strategy. When leaders sense decline, irrelevance, or loss of internal legitimacy, they sometimes choose to exit not quietly, but dramatically, turning themselves into the wronged protagonist of a larger story.
Shashi Tharoor seems to be counting on this approach. If the Congress were to sack him today, the story he would tell is easy to predict. He would portray himself as a victim of the Gandhi family, reinforcing the BJP’s long repeated claim that no one can survive in the Congress without absolute loyalty to the Gandhis. His defeat in the Congress presidential election would then be explained away not as a lack of organisational support or mass appeal, but as the result of bias and inner coteries.
This narrative would serve a clear political purpose. It would attract sympathy from quarters that already dislike the Congress, the right wing supporter. That sympathy would make him politically portable, BJP ready.
This is precisely why the Congress is not acting against him.
They understand that removing him prematurely would only strengthen his preferred storyline. Instead, the strategy is to wait. To allow public opinion to recognise and call out the opportunism. Once that sentiment is firmly established, showing him the door becomes an administrative decision, not a moral controversy.
In short, Congress is not waiting for its leadership. It is waiting for you.
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