Shashi Tharoor Clarifies Rahul Gandhi ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ Remark: ‘Not An Attack On Congress’

Published 9 August 2026 · local

News india Shashi Tharoor Clarifies Rahul Gandhi ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ Remark: ‘Not An Attack On Congress’ Shashi Tharoor Clarifies Rahul Gandhi ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ Remark

News india Shashi Tharoor Clarifies Rahul Gandhi ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ Remark: ‘Not An Attack On Congress’ Shashi Tharoor Clarifies Rahul Gandhi ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ Remark: ‘Not An Attack On Congress’ Published By, Last Updated: August 09, 2026, 09:30 IST Shashi Tharoor clarified that his remarks on Rahul Gandhi's ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ campaign were not an attack on Congress, stressing the need to listen to Gen Z. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said his remarks on Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ programme were not an attack on the party or its leadership. (Photo: Tharoor/X post) Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Saturday clarified that his remarks comparing the response to Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ programme with the recent Gen Z protest at Jantar Mantar were not intended as an attack on his party or its leadership. Tharoor said his comments had been interpreted by sections of the media in a manner that distorted the larger point he was trying to make, that established political parties need to create space for young people and provide them with a genuine pathway into politics. “It takes a particular combination of incompetence and malice for some media to interpret my conversation with Rishabh Shah at @iimunofficial as an attack on my own party or its leadership," Tharoor mentioned in a post on X. He shared the “entire video, uncut and unexpurgated" of his interaction at the India’s International Movement to Unite Nations (IIMUN) event in Mumbai on August 7, asking people to watch it and judge his comments for themselves.

It takes a particular combination of incompetence and malice for some media to interpret my conversation with Rishabh Shah at @iimunofficial as an attack on my own party or its leadership. Here is the entire video, uncut and unexpurgated, in full, of the conversation. Watch it… pic.twitter.com/rPlSIpkd3n— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 8, 2026 THAROOR EXPLAINS HIS POINT Tharoor’s clarification came a day after he spoke about the need for opposition parties to examine why they had failed to connect adequately with the younger generation. During the interaction, he said political parties needed to acknowledge that they had not created a route into established political organisations for the kind of young people who participated in the protest at Jantar Mantar last month. He questioned how young people could enter parties dominated by hierarchies, entrenched establishments, dynastic considerations and established political networks. Tharoor also asked what role young entrants were actually given after joining established parties, questioning whether they were merely expected to stand behind senior leaders at mass rallies and perform “foot soldier" work, or whether they could genuinely become people capable of making a difference. ‘CHHATRON KI GOONJ’ VS JANTAR MANTAR PROTEST Tharoor had also referred to Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ programme, saying that it had raised issues similar to those raised by the Gen Z protest at Jantar Mantar. When asked whether the ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ rallies had failed to resonate as strongly as the Jantar Mantar protest, Tharoor replied, “Correct. And that’s why we need to ask ourselves what we failed to do." He went on to question whether political parties had failed to listen to young people or had lost touch with the concerns of Gen Z.