‘Indian variant’ tweet: Nishikant Dubey writes to Speaker seeking Shashi Tharoor’s disqualification from Lok Sabha

The BJP leader claimed that Tharoor has surpassed all the limits of responsible behaviour.

In its continuing offensive against the to counter the terming of COVID’s B.1.617 mutation as the ‘Indian variant’, BJP leader Nishikant Dubey has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla urging him to disqualify Congress MP Shashi Tharoor over the issue. In his letter, Dubey claimed that Tharoor ‘surpassed all the limits of responsible behaviour’ when he referred to B.1.617 as the ‘Indian variant of the coronavirus’.

Dubey claimed that Tharoor has rich diplomatic experience and used the word ‘Indian Variant’ when the World Health Organisation (WHO) itself clarified that there is no such variant. He questioned in the letter why an Indian MP would use language that is unscientific and derogatory towards Indians. Dubey said that at a time when the Government of India has already written to all social media platforms to remove usage of this word, it is embarrassing to note that a member of Lok Sabha is using ‘such discourse to shame the country and its people’.

The BJP leader claimed that Tharoor has surpassed all the limits of responsible behaviour. He said that Tharoor’s recent tweets are in a way helping enemy countries to echo in various international fora that India is an incapable country without any vision.

This is not the first time that Dubey has taken head-on Shashi Tharoor. In the past, he had criticised Tharoor over several issues including those linked with the Information Technology committee headed by Tharoor. Dubey had sought the removal of Tharoor as the panel’s chief on many occasions.

The government has led a fierce counter against several Congress leaders who have openly called the virus mutation as the ‘Indian variant’, including former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath. Earlier last week, an FIR was filed against Nath for using the word ‘Indian Variant’ for the B.1.617 variant.

Nishikant Dubey’s letter comes at a time when the saffron party has launched a campaign against the Congress accusing it of manufacturing a ‘toolkit’ in which the opposition party had urged social media influencers and foreign media to defame India and the PM Narendra Modi-led government for its handling of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.