53 Facts About Shashi Tharoor

1.

Shashi Tharoor is an Indian former international civil servant, diplomat, bureaucrat and politician, writer and public intellectual who has been serving as Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, since 2009.

2.

Shashi Tharoor is the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers.

3.

Shashi Tharoor was formerly Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and unsuccessfully ran for the post of Secretary-General in 2006.

4.

From 1978 to 2007, Shashi Tharoor was a career official at the United Nations, rising to the rank of Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information in 2001.

5.

In 2009, Shashi Tharoor began his political career by joining the Indian National Congress and successfully represented the party from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala by winning in the Lok Sabha elections and becoming a member of parliament thrice.

6.

Shashi Tharoor has written columns and articles in nearly all major publications of the world and India.

7.

Shashi Tharoor was born on 10 March 1956 in London, United Kingdom to Chandran Tharoor and Sulekha Menon, a Malayali couple from Palakkad, Kerala.

8.

Shashi Tharoor's parents returned to India when he was 2-years old, where he joined the Montfort School, Yercaud, in 1962, subsequently moving to Bombay and studying at the Campion School.

9.

In 1975, Shashi Tharoor graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from St Stephen's College, University of Delhi, where he had been president of the student union and founded the St Stephen's Quiz Club.

10.

In 1996, Shashi Tharoor was appointed Director of Communications and Special Projects and Executive Assistant to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

11.

In January 2001, Shashi Tharoor was appointed as Interim Head of the Department of Public Information at the Assistant-Secretary-General level.

12.

Shashi Tharoor was confirmed as the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information with effect from 1 June 2002.

13.

On 9 February 2007, Shashi Tharoor resigned from the post of Under-Secretary-General and left the UN on 1 April 2007.

14.

Shashi Tharoor finished second, behind Ban Ki-moon of South Korea, in each of the four straw polls conducted by the UN Security Council.

15.

In February 2007, amidst speculation about his post-UN future, the Indian press reported that Shashi Tharoor might be inducted into Council of Ministers of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as Minister of State for External Affairs.

16.

Shashi Tharoor spoke around the world about India and Kerala, where he spent increasing amounts of time before moving for good to India in October 2008.

17.

Shashi Tharoor was an international adviser to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva from 2008 to 2011.

18.

Shashi Tharoor supported various educational causes, including as Patron of GEMS Modern Academy in Dubai.

19.

Shashi Tharoor once said that when he began his political career he was approached by the Congress, the Communists, and the BJP.

20.

Shashi Tharoor chose Congress because he felt ideologically comfortable with it.

21.

In March 2009, Shashi Tharoor contested the Indian General elections as a candidate for the Congress Party in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

22.

Shashi Tharoor was then selected as a Minister of State in the Council of Ministers of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

23.

Shashi Tharoor was a pioneer in using social media as an instrument of political interaction.

24.

Shashi Tharoor was India's most-followed politician on Twitter until 2013, when he was overtaken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

25.

Shashi Tharoor was the first Indian minister to visit Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake.

26.

Shashi Tharoor reformed the arrangements relating to the conduct of the Haj pilgrimage.

27.

Shashi Tharoor initiated new policy-planning activities on the Indian Ocean and represented India at various global events during his 11-month tenure as minister.

28.

Shashi Tharoor denied the charges and, during his resignation speech in Parliament, called for a full inquiry.

29.

Between 2010 and 2012 Shashi Tharoor remained active in Parliament and was member-convenor of the Parliamentary Forum on Disaster Management, a member of the Standing Committee on External Affairs, of the Consultative Committee of Defence, the Public Accounts Committee, and the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Telecoms.

30.

Shashi Tharoor participated in several important debates of the 15th Lok Sabha, including on the Lokpal Bill, the demand for grants of the Ministry of External Affairs and of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the black money debate, and so on.

31.

In 2012 Shashi Tharoor was re-inducted into the Union Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with the portfolio of minister of state for HRD.

32.

Shashi Tharoor was responsible for the ministry's written answers to Parliament's questions and responded to oral questions on education during the Lok Sabha's Question Hour.

33.

Shashi Tharoor addressed forums and conferences on education, explained a vision of India's educational challenges in the context of the country's demographic opportunities, and stressed that education was not only a socioeconomic issue, but a national security issue.

34.

In May 2014 Shashi Tharoor won his re-election from Thiruvananthapuram, defeating O Rajagopal of the Bharatiya Janata Party by a margin of around 15,700 votes, and became a member of the 16th Lok Sabha, sitting in Opposition.

35.

Shashi Tharoor was named Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs.

36.

Shashi Tharoor was dropped from the post of Congress spokesperson on 13 October 2014 after he praised statements of his party's opponent, Prime Minister Modi.

37.

In January 2015, Shashi Tharoor asked not to debunk genuine accomplishments of Ancient Indian Science due to exaggerations of the Hindutva brigade, amid 2015 Indian Science Congress ancient aircraft controversy.

38.

In March 2017, Shashi Tharoor called for the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata to be converted into a museum on the effects of British colonial rule in India.

39.

Shashi Tharoor has attempted to introduce a number of Private Members Bills in the Parliament.

40.

Shashi Tharoor is notable for his eloquence while speaking, as demonstrated by the popularity of his speeches on online platforms such as YouTube.

41.

Additionally, Shashi Tharoor is known for his views on a number of topics including economics, history, governance, and geopolitics due to both his well-regarded educational attainment and his broad experience while at the United Nations.

42.

Shashi Tharoor is an outspoken supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which campaigns for democratic reformation of the United Nations, arguing that "United Nations needs to open its doors to elected representatives" Many note that it is his combination of wit, charm, wry humour, and intelligence that make him accessible and held in high esteem, both in India and abroad.

43.

Shashi Tharoor did a one-off stand-up act as part of Amazon Prime Video series One Mic Stand.

44.

Shashi Tharoor began writing at the age of 6, and his first published story appeared in the Sunday edition of The Free Press Journal, in Mumbai at age 10.

45.

Victor Mallet in the Financial Times said Shashi Tharoor "wants us to understand the origins of the difficulties that confronted India" after Indian independence.

46.

Shashi Tharoor has called for the British government to pay "colonial reparations" to India.

47.

In 2007, Shashi Tharoor married Christa Giles, a Canadian diplomat working at the United Nations.

48.

Shashi Tharoor next married Dubai-based businesswoman Sunanda Pushkar at his ancestral home in Elavanchery village in Kerala's Palakkad district on 22 August 2010.

49.

Shashi Tharoor became her third husband, and step-father to her son Shiv Menon, born of a previous marriage.

50.

In May 2018, Shashi Tharoor was charged with encouraging the suicide of his wife and marital cruelty under sections 306 and 498A of the Indian Penal Code.

51.

Shashi Tharoor is a vegetarian and he "abhors the idea of consuming the corpses of animals," although he claimed that he does not have a problem with those who do.

52.

Shashi Tharoor was one of the first nine celebrities nominated in 2014 by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to spread awareness regarding cleanliness, hygiene and good sanitation and make Swachh Bharat Mission a people's movement.

53.

Shashi Tharoor responded by cleaning the Vizhinjam port on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram.