S Lalitha By Express News Service BENGALURU: Former Union Minister and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor felt that the Delhi mandate was a vote by the public against the BJP and out of any affection for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Congress needs to create strong local leadership and strengthen its presence in the grassroots within the next five years so that a similar scenario can be avoided, he felt. Tharoor told The New Sunday Express “Delhi elections, frankly, were a great disappointment to many of us because I think the Congress party has an excellent record of governance in Delhi and this was the time for it to be translated into votes. Very clearly, the public were so disullisioned with the BJP that they wanted to give the vote to the party they considered to be the most likely to beat the BJP.” He added, “Clearly, even traditional Congress supporters voted for AAP not because of any fondness for the AAP ideology for frankly there exists no AAP ideology. But rather because they thought that being the party in office, AAP had a better chance of defeating the BJP.” Charting out the way ahead for the Congress, the former Minister of State for External Affairs, said, “We have to clearly focus in the next five years on strengthening our presence in the grassroots and in creating strong local leadership. So that the next time around, the same thing doesn’t happen. “ Criticising the present tendency in the country to stifle criticism of the ruling dispensation, the MP said it was unfortunate that the other side is being delegitimised. “There is this whole notion that if you criticise the ruling party or the Prime Minister, you are anti-national, which is a way of delegitimising dissent. This is to my mind fundamentally wrong in a democracy. You have to respect other points of view. “ To a query on his recent call for stringent legislation to be put in place to ensure that doctors are not assaulted in the line of duty, Tharoor said, The truth is that the frustrations that are bubbling over in our society are not healthy. They need to be strongly discouraged in order to prevent such assaults on other doctors.” Pointing out that doctors are providing a public service, the MP posed this rhetorical query, “Why should they have to risk injury to life and limb because of some frustrations?” Referring to the recent incident of the banning of comedian Kunal Kamra by Indigo and Air India, Tharoor added that he was in favour of Kamra taking legal action as something ultra vires (beyond legal authority) was done to him. Students shine at St John’s convocation Bengaluru: As many as 163 health professionals were awarded degrees at the St Johns Medical College convocation on Saturday. On Saturday, 59 MBBS students, 71 post-graduates, 14 PG diploma students, 18 Super Specialty, and one PhD scholar received their degrees by Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament and former Union Minister, and Oswald Cardinal Gracias, President, Catholic Bishops Conference of India. A total of six undergraduates obtained University ranks in 11 subjects. Dr Sr Beatrice of the batch of 1964 was awarded the Sr. Dr. Mary Glowrey Award, the highest award of the St John’s Medical College Alumni Association.

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