Court refuses to quash defamation case against Shashi Tharoor over 'scorpion' remark on PM Modi

NEW DELHI: Delhi high court on Thursday refused to quash a defamation suit against Shashi Tharoor regarding his 2018 statement where he compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a 'scorpion'.

"No grounds are made out for quashing the proceedings," the judge said.

The trial court issued a summons to Tharoor following the defamation case filed against him by BJP leader Rajiv Babbar. The court had granted bail to him in 2019.

Tharoor had requested that the court overturn its April 27, 2019 order, which had summoned him as an accused in the criminal defamation case filed by Babbar. Additionally, he sought the dismissal of the complaint originally filed on November 2, 2018.

"Mr Modi is a scorpion sitting on a Shivling," he had allegedly said at an event in Bengaluru.

The Congress leader had later clarified that he was quoting an RSS leader.

"There's an extraordinarily striking metaphor expressed by an unnamed RSS source to journalist Vinod Jose, that, 'Modi is like a scorpion sitting on a Shivling, you can't remove him with your hand and you cannot hit it with a chappal either' ... because while removing him with a hand would mean you'd end up getting stung, hitting the Shivaling with a chappal would raise questions on the spiritual tenets you have been practicing for years," he had said, causing the controversy.
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