The Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur (the Legion of Honour), France’s highest civilian honour, has been awarded to Congress MP and orator Shashi Tharoor for his publications and speeches.
His writings and lectures have earned him recognition from the French government, and Tharoor has received a letter from Emmanuel Lenain, the French ambassador here, telling him of the honour.
Napoleon Bonaparte established the French order of merit in 1802 and it is given for outstanding civil or military conduct. Tharoor was awarded the Encomienda de la Real Order Espanola de Carlos III by the King of Spain in 2010, and the Spanish government gave him a comparable honour at the time.
The Thiruvananthapuram constituency’s two-term Lok Sabha representative and head of the parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs is Shashi Tharoor. In the previous UPA administration, he held the positions of Minister of State for External Affairs and Minister of State for Human Resource Development.
The MP from Thiruvananthapuram received congratulations from a number of Congress leaders as well as the Kerala branch of the party and the state’s Youth Congress branch.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a Congressman from the Lok Sabha, said he is in a state of “total ecstasy” after learning that Tharoor is receiving France’s highest civilian honour for his “amazing erudition and penetrating knowledge.”
