Shashi Tharoor is undoubtedly one of the best debaters of India. But he was strangely evasive when it came to talking about his next move. Though the former diplomat has made his intentions of contesting the general polls clear, he wasn’t very clear about his political plans. “I’m not running for it or running from it,” he said at an event at Oxford Bookstore on Thursday. “Never accept or reject a gift unless you have received it.”

Tharoor—the author of Nehru: The Invention of India— has made it amply clear that he would like to fight the polls for the Congress. And Kerala, not surprisingly, would be his preferred place to make his political debut. He might have stayed away from the state most of his life, but he said, “It will be a challenge to try and connect with the masses”. And whether his urbane image comes in the way of that is something he is willing to find out.

In Mumbai to promote his books, including The Five-Dollar Smile, India: From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond and The Elephant, the Tiger & the Cell Phone— he was engaged in a dialogue with the theatre personality Gerson Da Cunha. This was followed by an audience interaction which had Tharoor talking about the middle-class becoming more alert and involved in democratic process as well as in holding politicians accountable for the lapses. About India’s chances of securing a place in the UN Security Council, Tharoor said, “It is difficult to see when a formula will emerge for India to become its member.”

Tharoor, the author, seems to be on a break right now. His next, a book on cricket, is likely to be released in April. “Its release was supposed coincide with the Indo-Pak cricket series. Since it was postponed, the book’s launch has also been deferred,” he said.

Next, he plans to write a book on India’s soft power. However, a fiction from the author of The Great Indian Novel will take some more time to come.