Shashi Tharoor triggers the crowd by recalling a quote on Modi being a scorpion

BENGALURU: On Sunday the Congress MP Shashi Tharoor stoked a controversy by recalling an RSS leader’s quote on Narendra Modi in a 2012 magazine article which says “a scorpion is sitting on a Shivling. You cannot remove him with your hand and you cannot hit him with a chappal either”.

Shashi Tharoor at a literary festival said that, “Removing him with your hand would mean you would end up getting stung. Hitting the Shivling with a chappal would raise questions on the spiritual tenets you have been practising for years.

That they let it be with Modi is an illustration of the complex dynamic that exists between the Hindutva movement and the Moditva expression of it.”

Ravi Shankar Prasad the union minister and BJP leader alleged that Tharoor had disrespected Lord Shiva and has to sought an apology from Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Tharoor, in a tweet, said Shivling quote was not his, and it had been in the public domain for the past six years.

At the festival, Tharoor was to supposed to read excerpts from his upcoming book, ‘The Paradoxical Prime Minister’. Recalling that he had backed Modi in 2014, the MP said, “I was criticised in 2014 for having given the PM the benefit of doubt in the sense that I welcomed some of the statements he gave after his election, particularly in the first week.

He appeared conciliatory, inclusive and in terms of Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas, he was going to be PM for all Indians... but the disenchantment didn’t take too long to set in.

Minimum government, maximum governance was Modi’s slogan but in the last four-and-a-half years, what we have seen is the most centralised government, with a tremendous concentration of power in the PMO. Previously empowered ministers and secretaries have to defer to Modi and his team,” Tharoor said.

In his concluding remarks, Tharoor felt that the 2019 elections would be crucial for the future of the country.

By recalling his metaphor of India being a ‘thaali’ and not a ‘khichdi’, he said, “We’ve a regime that wants to kick off a few dishes (from the thaali) and make us into some bland Hindutva khichdi. Which is why I think Modi and his India need to be stopped.”