Country has not seen enough of ‘interesting’ Rahul: Shashi Tharoor

New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday said party president Rahul Gandhi is an “interesting” person with a tremendous intellectual curiosity, but the country “sadly” has not seen enough of him.

He was replying to questions from students of the Delhi University’s Hindu College at the ‘Mushaira Literature Festival’ after delivering a lecture in a jam-packed auditorium.

Asked about his opinion about the new party chief, Tharoor said,

“Gandhi has grown up with ideas, perspectives, anxieties, and a degree of knowledge and vocabulary base that many of the youths will find congenial. Gandhi has “thought very deeply about religion and matters of faith. He is a Shiv bhakt and seriously practices Buddhist Vipassana and can talk about differences between various schools of it and Hindu philosophy,” he said.

Citing an anecdote, Mr Tharoor said when all the political chatter was happening at the time of his elevation as the party’s vice-president in Jaipur in January 2013, “Gandhi was seen explaining a new book released by inventor of ‘black swan theory’ Nassim Nicholas Taleb”.

Mr Tharoor said Mr Gandhi “is an extremely interesting guy with a tremendous intellectual curiosity and is extraordinarily well-read. I say this because for a couple of years between my two ministerships, I sat directly behind him in Parliament.”

“Everyday we would chat and invariably the subjects he raised were about the books he was reading. That is the kind of the person he is and the rest of the country sadly has not seen it enough,” he added.

Mr Tharoor, a Lok Sabha member, said India was facing a choice between two different styles of leadership.