Shashi Tharoor. Photo by Ministry of Tourism. Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Shashi Tharoor


 

Shashi Tharoor is a former Indian international civil servant, diplomat, bureaucrat and politician, writer, and public intellectual who has been the Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, since 2009. He is the Chairman of the Chemicals and Fertilizers Standing Committee.

He was previously Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and ran unsuccessfully for Secretary-General in 2006. He was the founding-Chairman of the All India Professionals Congress and previously served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committees on External Affairs and Information Technology.

Tharoor, a Sahitya Academy Awardee, has written numerous works of fiction and non-fiction about India and its history, culture, film, politics, society, foreign policy, and other topics since 1981. He has contributed columns and articles to nearly every major international and Indian publication. Tharoor, a non-loyalist of the Gandhis, was soundly defeated by Mallikarjun Kharge for the position of party president.

1. Shashi Tharoor was born in London to an Indian expatriate family

Shashi Tharoor was born on March 10, 1956 in London, United Kingdom to Malayali couple Chandran Tharoor and Sulekha Menon from Palakkad, Kerala. Shobha and Smitha Tharoor are Tharoor’s younger sisters. Chippukutty Nair was Shashi’s paternal grandfather’s name. Shashi’s paternal uncle was Reader’s Digest founder Parameshwaran Tharoor. 

Tharoor’s father was born in Kerala and worked in London, Bombay, Calcutta, and Delhi, including a 25-year stint as group advertising manager for The Statesman. Tharoor’s parents returned to India when he was two years old, and he enrolled in the Montfort School, Yercaud, in 1962, before relocating to Bombay (now Mumbai) and attending the Campion School (1963–68). He attended St. Xavier’s Collegiate School in Kolkata during his high school years.

2. He was the youngest PhD recipient from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

Tharoor received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from St Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, in 1975, after serving as president of the student union and founding the St. Stephen’s Quiz Club. Tharoor went to the United States the same year to pursue an M.A. in International Relations at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Medford.

Tharoor earned his M.A. in 1976, his Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy in 1977, and his Ph.D. in International Relations and Affairs in 1978. Tharoor received the Robert B. Stewart Prize for best student while pursuing his doctorate, and he was also the first editor of the Fletcher Forum of International Affairs. He was the youngest person in Fletcher School history to receive a doctorate at the age of 22. 

3. Shashi Tharoor joined the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Shashi Tharoor. Photo by Chatham House. Wikimedia Commons

Tharoor began his UN career in 1978 as a staff member of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva. During the boat people crisis, he was the head of the UNHCR office in Singapore from 1981 to 1984, leading the organization’s rescue efforts at sea and successfully resettling a backlog of Vietnamese refugees. He also handled refugee cases from Poland and Aceh.

Tharoor left UNHCR after another stint at its headquarters in Geneva, where he became the first chairman of the staff elected by UNHCR personnel worldwide. In 1989, he was appointed as a special assistant to the Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs, a unit that later evolved into the Peacekeeping Operations Department in New York.

He led the team until 1996. In 1989, he was appointed as a special assistant to the Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs, a unit that later evolved into the Peacekeeping Operations Department in New York. He led the team in charge of peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia until 1996, spending a significant amount of time on the ground during the civil war there.

4. Shashi Tharoor ran for the position of United Nations General Secretary in 2007

Tharoor was nominated for the position of UN Secretary-General by the Indian government in 2006. Shashi Tharoor, 50, would have become the world’s second-youngest Secretary-General, after Dag Hammarskjöld, 46.  Despite the fact that all previous Secretaries-General were from small countries, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan believed Tharoor’s candidacy would demonstrate India’s willingness to play a larger role at the United Nations.

Tharoor finished second in each of the four UN Security Council straw polls, trailing South Korean President Ban Ki-moon. In the final round, Ban was the only candidate who was not vetoed by one of the permanent members, whereas Tharoor received one veto from the US. US Ambassador John Bolton later revealed Condoleezza Rice’s instructions: “We don’t want a strong Secretary-General.” Tharoor was a protégé of the independent-minded Kofi Annan, and a senior American official told Tharoor that the United States was determined to have “no more Kofis.”Following the election, Tharoor withdrew his candidacy and declined Ban Ki-invitation moon’s to stay on as Under-Secretary-General beyond the end of his term.

5. Shashi Tharoor joined the Congress party in India and ran in the Lok Sabha elections

Shashi Tharoor. Photo by Wikimedia Commons

Tharoor once stated that he was approached by the Congress, the Communists, and the BJP when he first began his political career. He chose Congress because he felt ideologically at home there. Tharoor ran for the Congress Party in the Indian General Elections in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, in March 2009.

Despite accusations that he was a “elite outsider,” Tharoor won by a margin of 99,989.

6. He was appointed as Union Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs

He was then appointed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Council of Ministers as a Minister of State.

On May 28, 2009, he was sworn in as Minister of State for External Affairs, in charge of Africa, Latin America, and the Gulf, as well as the Ministry’s Consular, Passports, and Visas services. As Secretary of State for External Affairs, he revived long-dormant diplomatic ties with African nations, where his fluency in French made him popular among Francophone countries and their heads of state.

7. He was appointed to the Ministry of Human Resource Development in 2012

Shashi Tharoor. Photo by Fotokannan. Wikimedia Commons

Tharoor was re-inducted into the Union Council of Ministers in 2012 with the portfolio of minister of state for HRD by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In this capacity, he was particularly interested in the issues and challenges of adult education, distance education, and the enhancement of high-quality research by academic institutions.

He was in charge of the ministry’s written responses to Parliamentary questions, as well as responding to oral questions on education during the Lok Sabha’s Question Hour. He spoke at educational forums and conferences, described India’s educational challenges in the context of the country’s demographic opportunities, and emphasized that education was not only a socioeconomic issue, but also a national security issue.

8. Tharoor was charged with abetting his late wife’s suicide

In 2014, his wife was found dead in a hotel room after accusing him of having an extramarital affair. Despite the fact that the autopsy revealed that the death was caused by a drug overdose, it was later revealed that the body had multiple injuries.

A year later, police filed a FIR against unknown individuals for murder. Tharoor was later charged under IPC Sections 498-A (cruelty to a woman) and 306 (abetment to suicide).

He was later cleared by a Delhi court cleared in a videoconference hearing, special judge Geetanjali Goel cleared Tharoor of all charges. Tharoor expressed gratitude after the verdict, saying it had been “seven and a half years of absolute torture.”

9. Shashi Tharoor is a vegetarian 

bowl of vegetable salads

A bowl of vegetable salads. Photo by Anna Pelzer. Unsplash

Tharoor is a vegetarian who “abhors the idea of consuming animal corpses,” though he claims he has no problem with those who do. He has stated that he is a “worshipping” and “believing Hindu” and that he is “very proud of being a Hindu.” Tharoor also claims to have read “a good deal” of the Upanishads.

10. Tharoor was a theater enthusiast in high school

Meera Nair was a student at Miranda House and Shashi Tharoor was a student at St. Stephens. These two colleges agreed to help each other out by sending actors and actresses to perform in plays. An old black-and-white photograph of them acting together recently surfaced.

 

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