Defamation complaint against Tharoor for remark against PM

A criminal defamation complaint has been filed against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor before a court here for his alleged "scorpion" remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In his complaint, Delhi BJP leader Rajeev Babbar alleged that Tharoor with "mala fide intention made the statement which is not only abuse of the Hindu deity but also defamatory".

He said being a vice president of the Delhi state BJP, he was "identified as a worker/ supporter of Narendra Modi and BJP" and that Tharoor's statement hurt his religious statement. The complaint, filed through advocate Neeraj, termed the statement as "intolerable

abuse" and "absolute vilification" of the faith of the people. "The speech of the accused had lowered down the credit and image of the complainant. The complainant was hurt and anguished as the intentional, defamatory and mischievous statement of the accused has lowered the reputation of the complainant in the eyes of others present there," the complaint said.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Saturday termed as "frivolous" the criminal defamation complaint filed by the BJP against him in a Delhi court and alleged that it was an attempt to "throttle the freedom of expression". Tharoor said, "The charges are frivolous... If we start to stifle the right of the people to quote published material then where would our democracy head?... Where is the freedom of expression?" Asked whether he felt the criminal defamation suit against him "is an attempt to throttle his voice", the Congress MP said, "Apparently it seems so".

Tharoor said he had quoted an article published in a magazine in 2012 in which a comment of an unnamed RSS leader had been mentioned. "So why has this defamation suit been filed against me now? In my book, I as a writer had quoted 5,000 other examples and stories," he said.

"The fact is that environment of free expression, the liberty to quote what has been said at one time or another about prominent political personalities in a respectable publication (is not wrong). As far as I am concerned, if we start stifling the right of people to quote published material then where does our democracy head?" he said.