Shashi Tharoor (born 9 March 1956) is a senior Indian politician, author, and former diplomat. A member of the Indian National Congress, he has been representing Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, as a four-term Member of Parliament since 2009. He is currently the Chairman of the Committee on External Affairs.

Tharoor was formerly an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and participated in the 2006 United Nations Secretary-General selection for the post of Secretary-General. He is the Founder-Chairman of the All India Professionals Congress and has served as Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology. With about two dozen titles to his credit, he was recognized by the World Economic Forum as a "Global Leader of Tomorrow."

Born in London and raised in Mumbai and Kolkata, Tharoor graduated from St. Stephen's College, Delhi, in 1975 and obtained a doctorate in International Relations and Affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, in 1978. He was the youngest recipient of such an honor from the Fletcher School at the age of 22. From 1978 to 2007, Tharoor 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.

In 2009, Tharoor began his political career by joining the Indian National Congress and has since been successfully elected as the Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, in 2009, 2014, 2019, and 2024. During the Congress-led UPA government, Tharoor served as Minister of State for External Affairs. Despite being a non-loyalist of the Gandhis, he was defeated by Mallikarjun Kharge for the position of party president in 2022. He is currently a member of the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision-making body of the Indian National Congress.

A Sahitya Akademi Award winner, Tharoor has authored numerous works of fiction and non-fiction since 1981. Renowned for his command of the English language, Tharoor was the most followed Indian on Twitter before being surpassed by Narendra Modi.