Senior Congress chief Shashi Tharoor on Friday waded into an argument together with his recommendation to BJP MP Tejasvi Surya that many noticed as going comfortable on bigotry, triggering a social media outrage which evoked a clarification from Tharoor that his intention was not to “mollycoddle” the offender. It all began with Tharoor’s tweet advising Surya, tagging a media report on the Bengaluru South MP’s allegations concerning a mattress blocking rip-off and his mentioning of names of Muslim staffers.
“My young colleague @Tejasvi_Surya is smart, passionate & talented. But I urge him to avoid this kind of behaviour,” Tharoor tweeted, tagging a media report in regards to the influence of Surya’s allegations on Muslim staffers. “Humanitarian needs must prevail over communal politics. Unity across political and religious lines is indispensable when lives are at stake,” the MP from Thiruvananthapuram tweeted.
Tharoor describing the BJP Yuva Morcha chief as “smart, passionate and talented” met with outrage on social media with many accusing him of normalising bigotry and going comfortable on Surya. “Hannibal Lecter was also smart, passionate & talented,” a Twitter person wrote referring to the serial killer character created by novelist Thomas Harris.
Responding to this tweet, Tharoor stated on Twitter, “Of course! So the choice is theirs: like Hannibal, whether to use their talent to be known as a renowned doctor or an infamous cannibal. I’m hopeful our young politicians will channel their talent & energy more constructively, to something better than divisive communal politics.” Quoting from Shakespearean play ‘The Tragedy of Julius Caesar’, Tharoor posted the strains, “And Brutus is an honourable man. So are they all, all honourable men.” “There are different ways of making your point. I used mine. Mark Antony had his. Clearly many people I respect would prefer theirs. Each is entitled to their own approach. The end result is what we all want,” the Congress chief stated. As the outrage and criticism continued, Tharoor put out a sequence of 4 tweets to make clear his place on the problem.
“The words I used to describe a Lok Sabha colleague have genuinely upset a lot of people, including some who’ve been my well-wishers. Like you, I disapprove of his (Surya’s) recent and past actions. It was out of solidarity with the 17 youth who unjustly were affected that I tweeted at all,” he tweeted. Tharoor stated he is aware of Surya as a member of the parliamentary committee he chairs and sees qualities that he felt may very well be put to higher use than to stoke communalism. “In the present inflamed environment, I regret that my message got lost in your outrage,” Tharoor stated.
“‘A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down’, goes the saying: I see many of my friends spat out the sugar and ignored the medicine. I understand you felt my ‘sugarcoating’ mollycoddled the offender and normalised his inexcusable conduct. That wasn’t my intention,” the previous Union minister stated, including that was the rationale he was issuing the assertion to make clear his place “Unlike most of my critics, I need to continue to work with MPs of different parties, & convictions opposed to mine, in the LokSabha. But I agree fully with my critics – there is NO space for normalising bigotry,” he asserted. Surya, Bommanahalli BJP MLA M Sathish Reddy and Basavanagudi MLA Ravi Subramanya on Tuesday made claims in regards to the mattress blocking rip-off in Bengaluru and talked about the names a number of Muslims, who have been deployed on the COVID War Room of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), whereas making the allegations. However, high police sources stated on Friday that investigation into the rip-off pertaining to blocking beds in personal hospitals for COVID sufferers has to this point not revealed the involvement of these Muslims whose names have been talked about by Surya on May 4 in a stay programme.
Many leaders have expressed outrage over Surya’s remarks.
Read all of the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News right here
