Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor was summoned by a Kolkata court on Saturday over a petition which accused the politician of ''insulting the nation and hurting religious sentiments''.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP had sparked off a controversy by saying that if the Bharatiya Janata Party wins 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it will pave the way for creation of a "Hindu Pakistan".
According to reports, a case under Section 153A/295A of the Indian Penal Code and Section 2 of The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 has been lodged against Tharoor by a Kolkata-based advocate Sumeet Chowdhury.
The petitioner alleged that Tharoor's statement had hurt the religious sentiments of the people, insulted the Constitution, and had been intended to make great clash and disharmony based on the religious split.
Chowdhury said Tharoor had insulted Indians by comparing an 'Islamic State' like Pakistan with a 'Secular State' like India, and also pointed out that the Congress leader had even refused to apologise for his remarks.
The court summoned the MP on August 14. According to a Zee News report, the court allowed the authorities to issue summons to Tharoor through his official Twitter and Facebook handles apart from the regular process of law.
Tharoor had kicked up a row with his remarks that if voted to power again, the BJP will rewrite the Constitution and pave the way for creation of a "Hindu Pakistan". Tharoor's comments prompted cries for apology from Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the "attack on Indian democracy and Hindus".
"If they have been able to win a repeat of their current strength in the Lok Sabha, then frankly, our own democratic Constitution, as we understand, will not survive... because then they will have all the three elements they need to tear up the Constitution of India and write a new one.
"And that will enshrine the principle of Hindu Rashtra, that will remove equality for the minorities, and that will create a Hindu Pakistan...and that is not what Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and great heroes of freedom struggle fought for," Tharoor said at an event in Thiruvanthapuram on Wednesday.