"Mature, Sensible": Shashi Tharoor On Centre After INDIA Bloc Protest

Praise came for the central government and the Delhi Police from an unexpected quarter -- the Congress, no less.

Hours after thousands turned up at the INDIA bloc's march to the Supreme Court, which was effectively spearheaded by Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, their party colleague, Shashi Tharoor, praised the central government and the Delhi Police for showing restraint. He added that by doing so, the government -- led by the Congress' staunchest political rival, the BJP -- has displayed "maturity".

"From the point of view of the Congress, we were greeted by an extraordinary turnout of enthusiastic supporters... But what was equally striking was the enthusiasm, the commitment, even though ordinary people would have had every reason to fear that the police might behave exactly as they had done on Saturday and Sunday," he told Managing Editor Shiv Aroor, referring to the police crackdown on the Cockroach Janta Party protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Over three thousand protesters, including CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, were detained on Saturday as they attempted to congregate at Delhi's Jantar Mantar to demand Kumar's resignation. All of them were later released. However, many protesters regrouped, and micro-protests broke out at several locations in the national capital on both Saturday and Sunday, despite the unprecedented preventive measures taken by the police.

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According to Tharoor, none of that happened during the INDIA bloc's protest march to the Supreme Court on Monday..

"To the credit of the government and of the police, they did not behave in a heavy-handed manner. For the most part, despite barricades and, I thought, an unnecessarily large presence of policemen who had nothing really to do but to observe, the entire protest was allowed to be conducted without any interference from the police. And to my mind, that was actually a rather mature and sensible way for the government to respond to this," he said.

The Congress' original plan was to submit a memorandum to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. The judge, however, declined to meet them and asked the party and its allies to file a petition with their requests.

Rahul Gandhi and 10 other INDIA bloc leaders submitted their petition after the march.

Asked about comparisons being drawn between the CJP protest and the Congress agitation, he simply rubbished the idea.

"Look, let me say very bluntly to you that that is simply preposterous. As far as we're concerned, we are the only national opposition to the BJP. Secondly, if the government saw fit to behave the way they did today, I'm sure that the Supreme Court's comments in their hearing on Sunday would have had something to do with it, too. You're not giving them enough credit," said the career diplomat-turned-politician.

"And I think that was possibly why they decided that, barring a major breakdown in law and order, which is the only justification the court was prepared to consider, they would actually heed the court's point of view... I can just say that I thought it was sensible of them to have a preventive deployment to ensure there was no law and order breakdown, but at the same time to not behave the way they had done earlier," he added.

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He further said the Congress and the CJP are not jostling for competing political space. He pointed out that Neha Bora, AISA president, was in fact the star of the Cockroach Janta Party protest and even she joined the INDIA bloc's agitation.

"Personally, I don't see it as a contest at all. In fact, Neha Bora, who was a star of the CJP protest, was with us today. She was on the same bus as the President of the Congress, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Rahul Gandhi. I met her. She sweetly took a selfie with me. I mean, she's a terrific girl. And I'm very, very pleased that she was with us. So, I don't see this as a contest. I think we're all fighting for the same principles that I believe the democrats in India, irrespective of political affiliation, would want.

"She certainly got an enormous amount of attention, didn't she? Rightly so, for the courage she displayed and the commitment to her principles that she displayed. That's all I'm applauding," he added.