A Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader likened Narendra Modi to "a scorpion sitting on a Shivaling", said Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. "You cannot remove him with a hand and you cannot hit it with a chappal either. Ultimately you live with it,'' he said.
Tharoor was speaking at the Bengaluru Literature Festival on his book The Paradoxical Prime Minister that highlights the "dichotomy" between what Prime Minister Narendra Modi says and what he does.
Tharoor claimed that the striking metaphor of a scorpion sitting on a Shivling was expressed by an unnamed RSS source to a journalist. "If you remove a scorpion with your hand, you will get stung very badly. If you hit Shivaling with a chappal, then you have undermined all the sacred tenets of the faith,” he said.
Modi is not confined to the RSS, said Tharoor. “He has been able to show that he is larger than the RSS. He has always been a bit of an individual. This has not gone down well with the RSS leaders, and they have expressed their inability to curb Modi.''
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Tharoor used the term ''Moditva'', a combination of ''Hindutva” and “Modi'' to describe the Modi phenomenon. ''Modi is from the Hindutva movement. But he is not imprisoned by the Hindutva. Because of his own personal inclinations, character and drive perhaps, the whole Modi personality stands out, '' he said to a loud applause.
Tharoor claimed that his book is full of interesting nuggets and facts which one cannot find elsewhere. Modi has been extremely effective in the marketing of his image, he said.
“While being BJP's prime ministerial candidate, he decided to bypass the mainstream media, which he felt had been unfair to him, in favour of reaching out directly to the public. His Twitter account became his key vehicle of messaging,'' Tharoor said while reading out some of the popular passages from his book. “He has a Facebook page, Linked In account and YouTube channel. He projects a compelling picture of himself to the world,” the Thiruvananthapuram MP said, adding that these are all part of a larger branding exercise.
Modi's masculinity is over advertised, said Tharoor. ''Apparently, his chest size is 6 inches less than what he claims it to be. It is just 50 inches,'' he said making the audience burst into laughter.
Recounting one of his earlier speeches in the US, Tharoor said, ''India is not a melting pot of cultures. We are a thali. The dishes don't flow into or mix with each other. But together they give you a satisfying experience.''
Touching upon the death case of his wife Sunanda Pushkar, Tharoor said the abetment to suicide charge against him was preposterous. ''Various unfair things have been committed against me, and more will be committed particularly in the next six months leading to elections,'' he said.
