Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday made it clear that he will neither accept the Veer Savarkar Award nor attend the ceremony at which it is to be conferred, citing the absence of clarity about the award and the organisation presenting it.
In a statement issued later in the day, Tharoor said it was inappropriate for the organisers to announce his name as a recipient without his consent.
He added that he had no prior knowledge of the award and had not agreed to accept it.
Tharoor, who represents Thiruvananthapuram in the Lok Sabha, said he first learned from media reports that he had been named for the honour while he was in Kerala to vote in the local body elections on Tuesday.
At that time, he had publicly stated that he was unaware of the award and had not accepted it.
“Despite this clarification, questions continue to be raised, making it necessary for me to state my position unequivocally,” he said.
Earlier, senior Congress leader K. Muraleedharan had said that no member of the party should accept an award named after V.D. Savarkar, alleging that the ideologue had sought mercy from the British.
Muraleedharan said he was confident Tharoor would not accept the honour, as doing so would embarrass the party.
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Tharoor reiterated that he would not attend the award ceremony. “I heard about it only yesterday. I am not going,” he said.
Responding to Tharoor’s remarks, Aji Krishnan, secretary of the Highrange Rural Development Society (HRDS) India, which instituted the award, claimed that the Congress MP had been informed in advance.
ALSO READ: Bhutan’s Gelephu International Airport wins Future Project of the Year award
He told a television channel that representatives of the organisation and the award jury had met Tharoor at his residence and shared details, including the list of other awardees.
Krishnan alleged that Tharoor had not formally communicated his refusal and suggested that political pressure may have influenced his decision.
Kerala Law Minister P. Rajeev said the decision to accept or decline the award rested solely with Tharoor.
Tharoor was named as one of the recipients of the inaugural Veer Savarkar International Impact Award 2025, scheduled to be presented on Wednesday in New Delhi.
Earlier on Tuesday, he had said he was unaware of the award and did not know who was conferring it, adding that he would first seek details before taking any decision.
