Delhi's Patiala House Court takes cognisance against Shashi Tharoor over his 'scorpion' remark

Delhi's Patiala House Court on Friday took cognisance on criminal defamation complaint against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor over his 'scorpion' remark on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

According to news agency ANI, BJP leader Rajeev Babbar will be recording his statement in this regard on December 22 in the national capital.

Tharoor had earlier on October 28 used a metaphor 'scorpion' for PM Modi. Tharoor had spoken at his book launch event in Bengaluru Literature Festival. He had said, "There's an extraordinarily striking metaphor expressed by an unnamed RSS source to a journalist, - 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."

Tharoor was referring to a quote by an RSS member mentioned in a story on Narendra Modi in 2012 in the Caravan magazine. The 7-page story titled The Emperor Uncrowned ended with this quote from a local RSS leader.

The BJP had earlier said that Tharoor has abused the sanctity of Shivling and Lord Shiva and Rahul should apologise for the same. "While Rahul Gandhi claims himself to be a Shiv bhakt, one of his small leaders has almost abused the sanctity of Shiv Linga and Lord Mahadev by referring to chappal attack through named sources," Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

"Rahul Gandhi you claim yourself be to a Shiv Bhakt please reply to this very horrific denunciation of Lord Mahadev by giving apology to what Tharoor has done," the Union Minister added.

Tharoor has recently published his book "The Paradoxical Prime Minister" which is critical of the dispensation under Narendra Modi.

"If Narendra Modi can be stopped in the next elections then India should still be able to protect its pluralist way of life and the longer he continues as Prime Minister, the greater the danger that the extent of India`s "Modi-fication" will be irreversible," the Congress MP had recently said.

In his book, Tharoor has written about his vision for the new India. "The New India I want is a country where you won't get lynched for the food you eat, marginalised for the faith you hold dear, criminalised for the person you love and imprisoned for making use of fundamental rights guaranteed by your own Constitution," the book states.

Not just the Congress, the BJP too is digging skeletons from the past, this election season. BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav on Sunday trained guns at the former Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government by recalling a faux pas that took place on a world platform in 2011.  

He recalled the incident in 2011 when the then external affairs minister SM Krishna inadvertently read out a Portuguese Minister's speech at the United Nations Security Council meeting in New York.