NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader
Shashi Tharoor
took a dig at JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar through his 'word of the day' over Kumar's latest political move of stepping out of the Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar. Tharoor labeled Kumar as a "
snollygoster
," a term referring to a shrewd and unprincipled politician.
The Congress leader shared a social media post from 2017, recalling Kumar's previous departure from the Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar, where he had aligned with the
Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) despite previous hostilities.
In a 2017 tweet, Tharoor introduced the term "snollygoster," defining it as a shrewd, unprincipled politician and highlighting its first known use in 1845. Recalling this post, Tharoor, known for his rich vocabulary, remarked on social media, "Didn't realize it would be the Word of Another Day too! #snollygoster." However, he refrained from explicitly naming Kumar in his post.
In 2017, he had tweeted the word in reference to Kumar switching sides to the BJP. He repeated the usage in 2019 when BJP's Devendra Fadnavis became the chief minister of Maharashtra, with Ajit Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party seemingly supporting a BJP-led government.
In November 2022, he posted a video of a chameleon changing colors while climbing a color-banded pole, accompanied by the term "snollygoster." This post was a satirical commentary on the prevalent trend of politicians switching allegiances before the assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.
The Congress, in response to Kumar's recent decision to resign as Bihar chief minister and withdraw from the Mahagathbandhan alliance, likened him to a "chameleon" and accused him of betrayal. The party expressed the belief that the people of the state would not forgive Kumar for his actions, dealing a significant blow to the opposition bloc in India.
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