Shashi Tharoor MP |
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Shashi Tharoor at the London Conference, June 2015
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Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha | |
Assumed office 16 May 2009 |
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Preceded by | Pannyan Raveendran |
Constituency | Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala |
Minister of State for Human Resource Development | |
In office 28 October 2012 – 18 May 2014 |
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Prime Minister | Manmohan Singh |
Preceded by | Daggubati Purandeswari |
Succeeded by | Upendra Kushwaha |
Minister of State for External Affairs | |
In office 28 May 2009 – 18 April 2010 |
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Prime Minister | Manmohan Singh |
Preceded by | Anand Sharma |
Succeeded by | E. Ahamed |
Under Secretary General of the United Nations for Communications and Public Information | |
In office 1 June 2002 – 9 February 2007 |
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Secretary-General | Kofi Annan |
Succeeded by | Kiyotaka Akasaka |
Personal details | |
Born |
London, United Kingdom |
9 March 1956
Political party | Indian National Congress |
Spouse(s) |
Tilottama Mukherji (divorced) Christa Giles (divorced) Sunanda Pushkar (2010 – 2014 (died)) |
Children | Ishaan, Kanishk |
Residence | New Delhi/ Thiruvananthapuram |
Alma mater |
St. Stephen's College, Delhi (BA) Tufts University (MA, MALD, PhD) |
Occupation | Writer, public intellectual, former United Nations official |
Website | shashitharoor |
"Why nations should pursue soft power", TED talk, November 2009 |
Shashi Tharoor (born 9 March 1956) is an Indian politician and a former diplomat who is currently serving as Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala since 2009. He also currently serves as Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs.
He was previously Minister of State in the Government of India for External Affairs (2009–2010) and Human Resource Development (2012–2014). He is a member of the Indian National Congress and served as an official spokesperson for the party from January to October 2014. Until 2007, he was a career official at the United Nations, rising to the rank of Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information in 2001. He announced his retirement after finishing second in the 2006 selection for U.N. Secretary-General to Ban Ki-moon.
Tharoor is also an acclaimed writer, having authored 16 bestselling works of fiction and non-fiction since 1981, all of which are centred on India and its history, culture, film, politics, society, foreign policy, and more. He is also the author of hundreds of columns and articles in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, Newsweek, and The Times of India. He was a contributing editor for Newsweek International for two years. From 2010 to 2012, he wrote a column in The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle and, for most of 2012, until his appointment as Minister, a column in Mail Today; he also writes an internationally syndicated monthly column for Project Syndicate. He also wrote regular columns for The Indian Express (1991–93 and 1996–2001), The Hindu (2001–2008), and The Times of India (2007–2009).