Election Commission should take cognizance of Shashi Tharoor`s `bleeder` remark: BJP

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday demanded that the Election Commission should take cognizance of Congress spokesperson Shashi Tharoor`s comments that India does not need "a bleeder or a pleader" as Prime Minister. “Shashi Tharoor uses the words "bleeders"? What kind of language is this? We demand EC takes cognizance of all this,” BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitaraman said. Yesterday, Tharoor gave the `bleeder` remark while hitting back at BJP`s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and senior leader Arun Jaitley for dubbing PM Manmohan Singh as "just a reader and not a leader". Tharoor had also questioned Jaitley`s attack on Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and said why BJP was targeting a "private individual", who is neither a member of a political party nor a candidate in this Lok Sabha polls. Tharoor`s remark came after Jaitley posted stinging remarks on his blog against Singh and Vadra. Jaitley took potshots at Singh in his blog saying the Prime Minister "walked on snow, but did not leave any footprints", a day after PMO sought to counter the perception that Singh has been "weak" in his tenure. Singh is under constant radar of the Opposition after the release of a book written by former media advisior to the PM during 2004-09, Sanjaya Baru - `The Accidental Prime Minister - The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh`. However, trashing Sanjaya Baru`s book, Pankaj Pachauri the communications advisor to PM on Friday said, "PM Manmohan Singh doesn`t need to make a statement as PMO, Congress & family have spoken." To substantiate claims of India`s growth under Manmohan Singh, Pachauri said, "GDP tripled in the last 10 years. Our per capita income tripled in last 10 years. But people don`t know, as media are priorities different." "PM has made more than 1000 speeches & more than half of what he said has been achieved in last 10 years." Dr Manmohan Singh`s eldest daughter Upinder Singh had also slammed Sanjaya Baru, the former advisor to the PM, saying his book `The Accidental Prime Minister - The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh` was nothing but a “stab in the back…a huge betrayal of trust...(and a) mischievous, unethical exercise”. With the book being released in the middle of the General Elections 2014, Upinder said the same could not be described as an “unbiased or objective book”.