Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Coming down harshly on the media for “inaccurate, dishonest and unprofessional” reporting, Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor on Sunday denied that he had criticised Nehru and Gandhi’s foreign policy.
“I was misquoted by the media. In fact, a newspaper has quoted Lord Parikh and attributed that to me… This is unprofessionalism and irresponsible reporting. I expect a correction from the media,” the MoS said at a press conference.
“It was a seminar. There was serious discussion going on… I only summarised Lord Parikh. I stated and I quote that Indian foreign policy grew from ours sense of civilisation and extraordinary contribution by Mahatma Gandhi and Nehruji`s articulation of our civilisation, heritage,” he said in his defence when asked by the scribes about his statement the other day.
"Both enhanced India standing in the world but also earned us the negative reputation of being a moralistic commentary on running world affairs that has come through very clearly through in your speech. It was a summary as chairman are supposed to do of remarks made by speakers," the Minister added.
Tharoor had on Saturday, during a seminar organised by the Indian Council of World Affairs in New Delhi, reportedly criticised Nehruvian foreign policy as a “moralistic running commentary”. Following his statement, many Congress leader expressed surprise.
A visibly upset Tharoor also waved two newspapers in particular and read out some highlighted portions there in, which he said were not his words.
When asked about Congress party spokesperson’s reaction to his statement yesterday, Tharoor said, “I have spoken to the spokesperson. At least one of them is a very good friend of mine. What he told me that he had not gone through the video of the seminar. He was hounded by the media and he was just reacting to the reporter’s comment.”
However, the minister refused to divulge whether he had any discussion on the topic with Congress president Sonia Gandhi or Prime Minster Manmohan Singh on the issue.
Tharoor had in the past too courted controversy by going public on policy issues on social networking site, Twitter.
