- Thursday, March 13, 2025
By: ANI
INDIAN National Congress leader and parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor on Thursday (7) clarified that everything he tweets is his “personal opinion”.
This came a day after Tharoor’s comments on the backlash against his Trinamool Congress colleague Mahua Moitra for her comment on Hindu Goddess Kali for which the Congress MP had come under fire by his own party. Tharoor took to Twitter and said he does not have any other kind of opinion except personal. Quoting Alexander Hamilton, Tharoor wrote, “Those who stand for nothing, fall for anything.”
Two points:
1. Everything I tweet is my personal opinion. I don’t have any other kind.
2. "Those who stand for nothing, fall for anything." ~ Alexander Hamilton— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) July 7, 2022
Tharoor on Wednesday (6) came out in support of Moitra over her comments on Goddess Kali stating “our forms of worship vary widely across the country.”
He also urged people to “lighten up and leave religion to individuals to practice privately.”
Goddess Kaali is meat-eating, alcohol-accepting: Indian parliamentarian Mahua Moitra on poster row
In a series of tweets posted on Wednesday (6), Tharoor wrote, “I am no stranger to malicious manufactured controversy, but am still taken aback by the attack on @MahuaMoitra for saying what every Hindu knows, that our forms of worship vary widely across the country. What devotees offer as bhog says more about them than about the goddess.”
“We have reached a stage where no one can say anything publicly about any aspect of religion without someone claiming to be offended. It’s obvious that @MahuaMoitra wasn’t trying to offend anyone. I urge every1 to lighten up&leave religion to individuals to practice privately,” he tweeted.
1/2 I am no stranger to malicious manufactured controversy, but am still taken aback by the attack on @MahuaMoitra for saying what every Hindu knows, that our forms of worship vary widely across the country. What devotees offer as bhog says more about them than about the goddess.
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) July 6, 2022
2/2 We have reached a stage where no one can say anything publicly about any aspect of religion without someone claiming to be offended. It’s obvious that @MahuaMoitra wasn’t trying to offend anyone. I urge every1 to lighten up&leave religion to individuals to practice privately.
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) July 6, 2022
Tharoor soon came under fire from his own party. Congress spokesperson Ragini Nayak said, “What Shashi Tharoor said was not the stand of the party. The Congress party’s clear stand is that like Gandhiji said; religion is a matter of personal faith for a person. But we should also be careful that we don’t do anything that hurts the sentiments of a person from another religion. It is the duty of everyone to ensure that.”
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Amit Malviya tweeted, “Mamata Banerjee’s politics, steeped in brazen minority appeasement, is the reason why her MP made that outright insulting comment on Maa Kaali. TMC must suspend her, ask WB (West Bengal) police to file FIR. Sonia Gandhi must also clarify Congress’s stand on it after Shashi Tharoor’s support…”
The TMC also condemned Moitra’s remarks on Goddess Kali where she called the Hindu deity a “meat-eating, alcohol-accepting goddess” at a conclave of India Today in Kolkata earlier this week. It also alienated herself from Moitra who reportedly unfollowed her party’s official handle following the row.
Moitra has been booked for allegedly hurting religious sentiments after her comment on Goddess Kali stirred a controversy.
A first information report has been registered in Bhopal in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh against Moitra under section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on grounds of hurting religious sentiments.
