THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Additional Chief Magistrate Court here on Friday issued notice to Shashi Tharoor, MP, summoning him for hearing on December 21 in connection with a defamation case filed against him. The defamation case was filed by a person named Sandhya Sreekumar, who accused the senior Congress leader and writer of portraying women of the Nair community in bad light through his 1989 book ‘The Great Indian Novel’.
The book is a satirical fiction where the plot, events and characters of of the epic ‘Mahabharata’ were used to retell the political history of the country in the 20th century.
Though the book was published three decades ago, the extracts of it became a tool for Tharoor-bashing prior to the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The specific sentence that stirred a hornet’s nest was uttered by a character named Pandu, who is seemingly named after Pandu the father of Pandavas, while discussing fidelity and morality. Reacting to this, Tharoor had earlier said the allegation was a “poisonous bilge” being spread by the Chowkidars - a remark suggesting BJP activists.