Court stays bailable warrant against Shashi Tharoor in defamation case

A Delhi court on Thursday stayed the bailable warrant issued against Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor in connection with a defamation case pertaining to his alleged "scorpion sitting on Shivling" remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Naveen Kumar Kashyap had, on Monday, issued a bailable warrant against him after he failed to appear before it. The lawmaker had not moved an exemption application for the same.

The court had also directed the complainant, BJP leader Rajiv Babbar, to pay a sum of Rs 500 for not appearing before the court.

In October 2018, Tharoor had stoked a controversy by invoking a news article where an unnamed RSS leader had compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a "scorpion sitting on a Shivling".

 

"There is an extraordinarily striking metaphor expressed by an unnamed RSS source to a journalist, who expressed their frustration to curb Modi -- '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' (slipper) either," he had said.

Tharoor had added, "If you try to touch the scorpion, you will be stung, but if you hit a shivling with the chappal, it undermines all the sacred tenets of the faith. That may well be an interesting clue to the rather complex dynamics that exist between the Hindutva movement and the Moditva expression on it."

Subsequently, a complaint was filed by Rajiv Babbar alleging that Tharoor's remarks hurt his religious sentiments.