A Delhi court Saturday summoned Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on June 7 on a complaint over his remarks that an unnamed RSS leader had compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a “scorpion sitting on a Shivling”.
A Delhi court Saturday summoned Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on June 7 on a complaint over his remarks that an unnamed RSS leader had compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a “scorpion sitting on a Shivling”.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal was hearing a criminal defamation complaint against the Thiruvananthapuram MP by BJP leader Rajeev Babbar who termed the remark as an “intolerable abuse” and “absolute vilification” of the faith of millions of people.
“I am a devotee of Lord Shiva…. However, the accused (Tharoor) completely disregarded the sentiments of crores of Shiva devotees, (and) made the statement which hurt the sentiments of all Lord Shiva devotees, both in India and outside the country,” Babbar said in his complaint. “The complainant’s religious sentiments were hurt and the accused deliberately did this malicious act, intending to outrage the religious feelings of Lord Shiva devotees by insulting their religious belief.”
The complaint was filed under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, relating to defamation.
In October last year, the Congress MP had quoted an unnamed RSS source at the Bengaluru Literature Festival and said, “There is an extraordinarily striking metaphor expressed by an unnamed RSS source to a journalist, that, ‘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’.”
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal was hearing a criminal defamation complaint against the Thiruvananthapuram MP by BJP leader Rajeev Babbar who termed the remark as an “intolerable abuse” and “absolute vilification” of the faith of millions of people.
“I am a devotee of Lord Shiva…. However, the accused (Tharoor) completely disregarded the sentiments of crores of Shiva devotees, (and) made the statement which hurt the sentiments of all Lord Shiva devotees, both in India and outside the country,” Babbar said in his complaint. “The complainant’s religious sentiments were hurt and the accused deliberately did this malicious act, intending to outrage the religious feelings of Lord Shiva devotees by insulting their religious belief.”
The complaint was filed under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, relating to defamation.
In October last year, the Congress MP had quoted an unnamed RSS source at the Bengaluru Literature Festival and said, “There is an extraordinarily striking metaphor expressed by an unnamed RSS source to a journalist, that, ‘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’.”