Jinit Jain

On 8 November 2021, BJP patriarch Lal Krishna Advani celebrated his 94th birthday. PM Modi, along with several politicians from across the political spectrum took to social media to extend their greetings to the nonagenarian leader.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor was also amongst those who took to Twitter and wished LK Advani on his birthday. “Warm wishes for a fine human being, a gentleman in politics, a leader of wide reading and great courtesy,” Tharoor tweeted along with adding the hashtag #HappyBirthdayLKAdvani.

However, this did not sit well with the Congress supporters and sympathisers, many of whom associate themselves with the left ideology. A bevvy of them descended on Shashi Tharoor's timeline and lambasted the senior Congress leader for extending the general courtesy of wishing a political leader from the opposition party on his birthday.

“Not surprising at all to see Tharoor eulogising Advani but it's a massive shame how many people still consider this fascist apologist a role model merely because he speaks good English,” a palpably perturbed Twitter user said who could not bring himself to accept the fact that Congress' blue-eyed boy had posted an effusive tweet extending birthday greetings to the former deputy prime minister of the country.

Another Twitter user said the tweet shows Shashi Tharoor ain't worthy of being considered as a ‘fine human being'.

Still another Twitter user used Tharoor's infamous tweet he had used against Arnab Goswami against him for Tharoor's wishes for LK Advani. “Exasperating farrago of distortions, misrepresentations & outright lies being spoken by an unprincipled protagonist masquerading as an intellectual,” tweeted one Ammar Akhtar.

The hate on Twitter was not just limited to Tharoor alone. Even Advani was reviled, just because a leader of a so-called secular party chose to wish a BJP leader on his birthday. “A retired hate monger is still a hate monger,” commented a Twitter user rebuking Tharoor for extending his birthday greetings to LK Advani.

The harsh criticism directed at Congress leader Shashi Tharoor underscores the pathological hatred leftist supporters harbour for a leader who does not hew to their worldview. Their hatred for a leader belonging to the opposition camp is so pronounced that they don't mind reviling and castigating their own leaders when they indulge in extending the general courtesy of wishing someone their birthday.

Liberal contempt for democracy and general civility

Advani has been a veteran, not just as a BJP leader but as a national politician. He has served as the Information and Broadcasting minister. He also served as the deputy prime minister of the country under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime. Advani is also credited for reinforcing the democratic ethos of the country when he launched the BJP along with Atal Bihari Vajpayee and other ex-Janata Party leaders.

With the formation of the BJP, Advani provided a formidable political party to the citizens of the country who had grown weary of the decades of Congress rule. Within a decade of its formation, BJP rose from winning just 2 Lok Sabha seats in the first general elections to racking up an impressive 86 in its second elections. In a way, Advani is responsible for reifying the democratic tradition of the country.

Therefore, leftists' hate for their own leader and for LK Advani is a reflection of their contempt for democracy. For them, democracy is a virtue worth preserving only when political leaders and parties who share their ideology are in power. When an opposition party and leader get elected to power, instead of dissing a public mandate that made it possible, they try to undermine the democracy by making spurious and unfounded allegations against opponents.

Attack against Shashi Tharoor reflects Left's unbridled hatred for opposition leaders

They would raise the bogey of “rising intolerance” so that the BJP government at the Centre could be painted as bigoted while it is they who are intolerant. They don't spare even a sombre occasion such as death to peddle hatred against their ideological opponents. For example, a large number of left-leaning ‘intellectuals', journalists and activists expressed glee after the death of Aaj Tak journalist Rohit Sardana, whom they branded as BJP supporter.

Well, when this was not enough for them, they even went to the extent of rebuking those who expressed their condolences over Sardana's death. Likewise, similar depravity was witnessed after the passing away of BJP stalwarts Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, when a host of left-wing supporters and sympathisers had taken to celebrating their deaths and castigating people belonging to the ‘left' fold who had displayed the civility of commiserating their deaths.

While the left-liberals and their supporters hold forth others on the need to have “dignity in death” and to “rise above politics” on solemn occasions such as death, they clearly are not the ones who believe in the old adage of ‘practice what you preach'. For them, the hatred for non-left leaders is so profound and stark they consider it fair-game to attack even their own leaders if they find them indulging something as trivial and banal as wishing a political opponent on their birthday.