A criminal defamation complaint has been filed against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor before a court in New Delhi for his alleged “scorpion” remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In his complaint, Delhi BJP leader Rajeev Babbar alleged that Mr. Tharoor with “mala fide intention made the statement, which is not only abuse of a Hindu deity but also defamatory”.
He said being a vice president of the Delhi State BJP, he was “identified as a worker/ supporter of Narendra Modi and BJP” and that Mr. Tharoor’s statement hurt his religious sentiments.
The complaint, filed through advocate Neeraj, termed the statement “intolerable abuse” and “absolute vilification” of people's faith.
“The speech of the accused had lowered down the credit and image of the complainant. The complainant was hurt and anguished as the intentional, defamatory and mischievous statement of the accused has lowered the reputation of the complainant in the eyes of others present there,” the complaint said.
Mr. Tharoor stoked a controversy on Sunday while speaking at the Bangalore Literature Festival, claiming that an unnamed RSS leader had compared Mr. Modi to “a scorpion sitting on a Shivling”.
“The said unknown remarks, which were allegedly made in 2012, were of no consequence at that time but today with growing worldwide popularity of Modi and BJP, the accused has deliberately dug out that buried statement to quote and make it relevant in the present context,” the complaint said.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal on Saturday listed the matter for consideration on November 16.
“Accused’s statement is not only false, rather an insult to all workers, supporters, the leaders... The accused had deliberately made the statement intending to harm, knowing and having reason to believe that such false statement will harm the reputation of the workers/supporters of Narendra Modi and BJP,” the complaint said.
Mr. Babbar said Mr. Tharoor “deliberately did this malicious act, intending to outrage religious feeling of Lord Shiva devotees by insulting their religious believes”.
The complaint has been filed under Sections 499 and 500 of the IPC relating to defamation. If convicted, Mr. Tharoor may face a maximum punishment of two years in jail.
Defamation case "frivolous"
Mr. Tharoor termed the criminal defamation case as “frivolous” and alleged that it was an attempt to "throttle the freedom of expression".
Reacting to it, Mr. Tharoor told reporters, “The charges are frivolous ... If we start to stifle the right of the people to quote published material then where would our democracy head ?... Where is the freedom of expression ?”
Asked whether he felt the criminal defamation suit against him "is an attempt to throttle his voice", Mr. Tharoor said, "Apparently it seems so".