'Conscientious': What's Behind Shashi Tharoor's Rare Praise For Delhi L-G Amidst Heavy Rainfall?

Delhi has broken an 88-year-old rain record, bringing relief from a prolonged heat wave but also causing widespread flooding. In a rare show of cross-party praise, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor commended Lt Governor VK Saxena for his quick response to the crisis.

Tharoor, on X, shared a video of his flooded street, with locals wading through waist-deep water. 

The Thiruvananthapuram MP wrote: "This is the corner just outside my home in Lutyens' Delhi. Woke up to find my entire home under a foot of water - every room. Carpets and furniture, indeed anything on the ground, ruined. Apparently, the stormwater drains in the neighbourhood are all clogged so the water had no place to go. And they switched off the electricity at 6 am for fear of electrocuting people.”

“Warned my Parliament colleagues that I might not make it there without a boat. But the city managed to pump water out of the roads and I did arrive in time!"

However, in less than an hour, Tharoor expressed rare praise for Saxena.

He replugged his earlier post and wrote: "Amazed and impressed that this tweet elicited, within minutes, a phone call from the Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi himself! Shri VK Saxena was courteous and responsive and explained the constraints on effective action arising from the division of responsibilities between Union and State Governments. He does understand the principal problem lies in the failure to clear clogged drains regularly and pledged to do everything in his power to ensure this is done before the next major shower. Hats off to a conscientious civil servant!"

Delhi received 230 mm of rainfall in 24 hours, the highest since 1936. A portion of the roof of the departure complex at Delhi Airport's Terminal 1 collapsed early in the morning, resulting in one death and six injuries. 

With the monsoon expected to arrive in Delhi by the end of this week, according to the IMD, the city is bracing for more rainfall.