When deputy foreign minister Shashi Tharoor tweets to his half-a-million followers, whether criticizing tough visa restrictions or joking about holy cows, the old guard of India's ruling Congress party shudders. Here is a 53-year-old minister, a sprightly new kid on the block by the standards of India's grandfatherly politicians, using trendy social networks to espouse political views many in the party and government would like kept private. “Policy matters should not be discussed in the public domain,” 77-year-old Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna said, reprimanding his deputy after he criticized restrictions on tourist visas to crack down on militants entering India. Tharoor has made headlines in India, where Twittering by politicians is rare but where there are some 500 million mobile phones - one of the world's fastest growing markets. Other remarks this week from Tharoor which seemed to criticize the foreign policy of Jawaharlal Nehru - who helped win India independence -also met with storms of party indignation. The backlash by Congress heavyweights on Tharoor underscores the battles many younger, reformist politicians face as they push new thinking in a second-term government wary of rapid change. The Congress-led government's new term has seen the rise of figures like Tharoor, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and Trade Minister Anand Sharma, appointed to push a reformist agenda against more traditional figures within Congress who have often focused more on political expediency. “Many of these new figures have one thing in common - contempt for old Congress,” said political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan. The controversies show political caution runs deep in Congress, even in what promises to be an easy year for a party effectively freed from shackles of coalition politics, with no major state elections ahead and opposition in disarray. “The government has everything going for it,” said political analyst Swapan Dasgupta. “But it often seems sunken in inertia.” Sharma, for example, ran into immediate criticism from within the party when after the 2009 election he said an “impasse had been broken” over World Trade Organization talks, hinting India needed to be more flexible. He quickly rowed back his remarks. That conservatism may have been reflected with reforms. Freed from its communist allies, the government has pushed forward with streamlined taxes and plans to sell off stakes in state-owned companies and speed up shabby infrastructure projects. Snail-paced past progress means India is still mired in poverty that is often worse than sub-Saharan Africa. Some analysts see these reforms as tinkering despite the government winning a big new mandate. They say political inertia from elderly conservative politicians will hinder India's efforts to grow by more than 9 percent and keep pace with rival China. These debates also reflect future battles within Congress for supremacy as younger politicians vie for influence. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, 77, is expected to quit before the next election, opening up a succession battle the Gandhi family scion Rahul Gandhi, a 39-year-old reformist, may win. Gandhi, who heads Congress's youth wing, has promised to overhaul the party with young and fresh cadres. “Everyone knows Singh is in a holding pattern,” said Dasgupta. “The Tharoor controversy shows new guards are trying to gain space in Congress, whether it's Gandhi or Tharoor. These are efforts at creating new political cultures within the party.” Tharoor has so far survived politically. But the old guard appears to be eyeing his every move. The matter is closed for the time being,” India Today magazine quoted a Congress party insider as saying after the latest Nehru controversy. “Till the next Tweet.”
