NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Friday took cognisance of a criminal defamation complaint against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor for his alleged “scorpion” remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The complaint, filed by Delhi BJP leader Rajeev Babbar, alleges that Tharoor made the remark with mala fide intention, which not only is an “abuse of the Hindu deity but also defamatory”.
He claimed in the complaint that as the vice-president of the BJP’s Delhi unit, he was “identified as a worker/supporter of Narendra Modi and BJP” and the Congress leader’s statement hurt his religious sentiments. He also said in his complaint that the remark was “intolerable abuse” and “absolute vilification” of people’s faith.
Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Samar Vishal scheduled the recording of Babbar’s statement on December 22. While speaking at the Bangalore Literature Festival last month, Tharoor sparked a controversy when he claimed that an unnamed RSS leader had compared Modi to “a scorpion sitting on a Shivling”.
Tharoor said: "Modi is like a scorpion sitting on a Shiv-ling. You cannot remove him with your hand and you cannot hit it with a 'chappal' (slipper) either."
Tharoor has quoted it recalling what an RSS member had told a journalist in 2012.