Shashi Tharoor's Googly is a 'reality' check for Congress and Rahul ::: CJP may be AAP-2 and 'harm grand old party' more than Modi or BJP

This is no longer a rocket science. 

The Lokpal Movement and AAP in 2012-13 later harmed the Congress party more in national level as well as in Delhi, Punjab and Gujarat. 

Similarly, the CJP may be AAP-2 and 'harm grand old party' more than Narendra Modi or the BJP. 

Shashi Tharoor's Googly is a 'reality' check for Congress and Rahul. 

"We did not provide routes for the kinds of people in Jantar Mantar", said Tharoor. 

He also maintained --  "How do young people get into established parties - where there are hierarchies, entrenched establishments, dynastic considerations, political considerations .... How do new young people come in ... 

"And if they come in  .. what do they get to do... Stand behind the established leaders ... to make up the numbers ....".  

Tharoor, while acknowledging that Rahul Gandhi's student outreach fell flat, said political parties must rethink their structures and give Gen Z a meaningful role in shaping politics to avoid becoming irrelevant.  

Speaking at the 15th anniversary celebrations of the International Movement to Unite Nations (IIMUN) in Mumbai, Tharoor said several of the issues that later became central to the CJP’s protests at Jantar Mantar had already been raised by Congress and Rahul Gandhi through the party’s ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ campaign.

The Congress MP acknowledged that Rahul Gandhi’s Chhatron Ki Goonj outreach failed to generate the kind of response seen during the recent Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led protests, prompting a pointed question within the party: 

Did Congress fail to listen to Gen Z?  

“Interestingly, the issues taken up by the CJP and the Jantar Mantar protesters had been taken up by us earlier. We had a Chhatron Ki Goonj thing where Rahul Gandhi was addressing students about the paper leaks, about the things and so on. And that didn't resonate as much as this did,” Tharoor said.

He said the Congress needed to look beyond the issues it was raising and examine why its outreach had failed to connect with young people in the same way.