Tharoor trolled for Nehru's 'US photo' from USSR visit, makes comeback with 1949 US trip pics

Setting out to take a swipe at the 'Howdy Modi' event, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor found himself in a spot of Twitter trouble instead when he posted a picture of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi in what he claimed was the US only to clarify later that it was probably from their visit to the USSR.

Tharoor, who tweeted the photograph of the first prime minister and his daughter in an open vehicle waving to large crowds of people, was also trolled for misspelling Indira Gandhi's name as "India Gandhi".

Hours later, Tharoor, looking to settle the "kerfuffle" over the issue, posted an authenticated pair of pictures from Nehru's visit to the US in 1949 in which a large number of people can be seen gathered at the University of Wisconsin to hear the visiting dignitary give a speech.

 

Tagging a photo and taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's diaspora event in Houston, Tharoor on Monday night had said, "Nehru and India Gandhi in the US in 1954. Look at the hugely enthusiastic spontaneous turnout of the American public, without any special PR campaign, NRI crowd management or hyped-up media publicity."

It was a gaffe, several netizens told Tharoor, who has a massive following of 7.1 million on Twitter. It was actually a picture from Nehru and Indira Gandhi's visit to the USSR some time later, they said.

Tharoor issued a clarification a short while later.

"I am told this picture (forwarded to me) probably is from a visit to the USSR and not the US. Even if so, it still doesn't alter the message: the fact is that former PMs also enjoyed popularity abroad. When @narendramodi is honoured, @PMOIndia is honoured; respect is for India," he said in a tweet some hours later.

In a bid to put a lid over the Twitter talk, Tharoor posted the two authenticated photographs on Tuesday night saying, "After the Twitter kerfuffle about a mislabelled photograph, here's an authenticated pair of pix from our PM's visit to the US in 1949: a large crowd of people gathers at the University of Wisconsin to listen to a speech by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in November 1949.