Shashi Tharoor recalls 2012 ‘scorpion’ quote on Modi, triggers a row

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


“There is a striking metaphor that an unnamed source in the RSS told journalist Vinod Jose (in 2012),” Shashi Tharoor said at a literary festival, citing the quote. “Removing him with your hand would mean you would end up getting stung. Hitting the Shivaling 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.”


RSS, too, frustrated with Modi: Tharoor
Speaking at a literature festival here, Tharoor described PM Modi as an individualist whose behaviour frustrated RSS members too.

Union minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad alleged that Tharoor had disrespected Lord Shiva and sought apology from Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Tharoor, in a tweet, said Shivaling quote was not his, and it had been in the public domain for six years. He added that his “book cites and footnotes the article published in 2012”.

At the festival, Tharoor was to read excerpts from his latest 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.”

Tharoor then proceeded to elaborate on the various ways in which the government had failed to deliver on its promises. “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 the 2019 elections would be crucial for the future of the country. 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.”



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