New Delhi, June 19 (IANS) Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership as the latter recently became the longest and continuously serving elected head of government in India, while also flagging concerns on “communal divide” and “hollowing out” of constitutional establishments.

Speaking to IANS, Tharoor called PM Modi a “powerful orator”, having an “articulate vision”.

He said, “I think we all recognise that he has a tremendous amount of dynamism and energy, that he has a vision. Whether you agree with that vision or not, he articulates a vision. He is a powerful orator, perhaps one of the best orators this country has seen in Hindi.”

“He reaches out particularly to those who speak that language, he has a very compelling presence on the national stage, and undoubtedly, he has been able to leave his stamp on many aspects of Indian life, society and politics, no doubt about that,” he added.

Further, Tharoor said that India’s economy, particularly the building up of infrastructure, is certainly one of PM Modi’s achievements. Though he mentioned, there is still room for improvement.

However, he cautioned that some negatives have also been witnessed during PM Modi’s tenure and that one cannot only focus on the positives.

“We are concerned about growing disunity within the country, the communal divide, a lot of political rhetoric that is being encouraged by the ruling party and their followers, in ways that have unfortunately alienated significant sections of the population,” he said.

“People in the southern part of the country are worried about the survival of federalism,” the Congress leader added.

Referring to the Opposition’s allegations that the Centre has been “using” the Enforcement Directorate and the Election Commission, Tharoor said: “There are real concerns in many ways about the manner in which the independent autonomous institutions of our democracy have been hollowed out in the course of these last 12 years.”

Maintaining that he has a lot of respect for PM Modi, he said: “Personally, I think he has done a lot of things right, but this period has also witnessed a number of things that are not so good for India.”

—IANS

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