Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who has recently been at odds with the party high command, backed party colleague Digvijay Singh’s remarks calling for organisational reforms within the Congress, stressing the need to strengthen the party structure.
Digvijay Singh triggered a debate with a post on X in which he shared an old photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from his early days as a grassroots worker of the RSS and the BJP. Sharing the image, Singh wrote that he had found the picture on Quora and described it as “very impressive.” He reflected on how a grassroots swayamsevak of the RSS and a worker of the Jan Sangh and BJP went on to become a chief minister and later the prime minister, attributing the rise to the strength of the organisation. He ended the post with “Jai Siya Ram.”
Soon after, Singh issued a clarification, reiterating that he remains a staunch opponent of the RSS-BJP ideology. Speaking to news agency ANI, he said he has consistently opposed the RSS, alleging that it neither respects the Constitution nor the country’s laws and functions as an unregistered organisation. However, he said he admires its organisational capacity, noting that despite being unregistered, it has grown so influential that the Prime Minister has described it from the Red Fort as the world’s largest NGO.
Commenting on the Congress party’s organisational strength, Singh said there was clear scope for improvement. He described the Congress as fundamentally a party of a movement but admitted that converting that movement into electoral gains has been a persistent challenge.
Tharoor, who attended an event marking the Congress party’s 140th anniversary at Indira Bhavan on Thursday, responded to media queries on Singh’s remarks. Asked whether he had spoken to Singh, Tharoor said, “We are friends, and having a conversation is natural. The organisation must be strengthened—there is no question about it.”
