Senior Congress leader Dr Shashi Tharoor has never failed in mincing words. In 2015, his speech was applauded by everyone when he called out Britain's imperial rule on India at the Oxford Union. We have rarely seen our politicians make a point with such dignity. However, Tharoor landed in a tweet tempest on Sunday for his pun on Miss World 2017 Manushi Chhillar, who was crowned on Saturday.
Tharoor targeted the NaMo government’s flagship demonetisation decision with the tweet equating Chhillar with its literal meaning – coins. However, he had to face the ire of social media users, who thought it was not in good taste.
The unimpressed Twitterati asked him not to make fun of the girl who made the nation proud. Tharoor also received summons from the National Commission of Women for the “derogatory and degrading tweet”. NCW chief Rekha Sharma had even asked the Congress MP to tender an apology, but did not receive any response.
Eventually Tharoor apologised. He said it was a light-hearted tweet and he meant no offense to anyone.
NCW also reconsidered its summons after the apology. However, speaking to CNN-News18, Sharma asked, “This is not a joke, it can’t be light hearted... will he say something similar about a girl from his family?”
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