I honestly believe that the politician was actually unbiased in terms of the political effect on the player. He actually tried to help the player's career but I also agree that in a country like India it obviously causes a lot more harm instead of good. Because that raises the question in other people's minds. And any player from any other religion can obviously say that if you follow the same religion as an important political figure you will have a better chance of playing for the national team. and that will eventually come back to bite the player.
Right now Umran is an emerging player and he has a bright career ahead. Now what happens is that some of the politicians may jump in to fray, and take credit for his success (similar to what Tharoor has done). And when politicians get involved, people forget the sports aspect and think about the political aspect. Tharoor is a representative of a particular political party and when he jumps in for someone the other camp may oppose that individual. That won't be the case, if Sourav Ganguly or Sachin Tendulkar issues a statement to support Umran. And all that said, I still don't think that Tharoor's intention was good. When was the last time he put up a cricket-related tweet?
I think this politician is just an admirer of cricket. Probably he just likes the cricket that he is watching from the player and because of the amusement that he got, I think he did what he did base on that. I don't think there will be any big problems caused by this.
India has fair amount of problems when it comes to bigotry and religious fanaticism but when it comes to cricket then there is virtually no drama at all, it's all about meritocracy and nothing else. Just to give you example of Arjun Tendulkar (Sachin's son), he recently got rejected for even Mumbai's Ranji squad. For decade or so it started happening in other spots too.
I remember sometimes back some Ambedkarite (pro reservation) made a reservation jibe at the Cricket. With in a few hour everyone including Left-Centre-Right and literally every visible nutjob in the media ganged up together against this idea.
Actually, I believe the Indian people always want to keep politics out of cricket, that is a really good thing. I personally believe sports and politics should not mix with each other. But we have seen some problems happening in India because the cricketers played badly (talking about the problem that was created after the 2007 world cup). I believe India has come a long way since that. Everyone is quite understanding and always thinks rationally.