NEW DELHI: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday declined to accept the ‘Veer Savarkar Award’, calling the organisers “irresponsible” for announcing his name without him having agreed to receive it.Tharoor was named among the first winners of the newly instituted Veer Savarkar International Impact Award 2025, to be presented by Highrange Rural Development Society India.
“I have come to know from media reports that I have been named a recipient of the “Veer Savarkar Award,” which is to be presented today in Delhi. I only learned about this announcement yesterday in Kerala, where I had gone to vote in the local self-government elections. There in Thiruvananthapuram, responding to media queries, I had clarified that I was neither aware of, nor had accepted, such an award and it was irresponsible on the part of the organisers to announce my name without my having agreed to receive it,” the Thiruvananthapuram MP said in a post on X.“Despite that, today in Delhi, some media outlets continue to ask the same question. Therefore, I am issuing this statement to clarify the matter unequivocally. In the absence of clarifications about the nature of the award, the organization presenting it or any other contextual details, the question of my attending the event today or accepting the award does not arise,” he added.After Tharoor’s remarks, Aji Krishnan, secretary of the HRDS India said that the Congress MP had been notified about it well ahead of time, PTI reported citing a TV channel.He added that HRDS India representatives and the jury chair had visited Tharoor at his home to extend the invitation, during which the MP requested a list of the other awardees.Kerala law minister P Rajeev had said that the choice to accept or decline the award rested entirely with Tharoor.
