The Supreme Court on Friday gave relief to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is facing a defamation trial due to a statement on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The court said that leaders and judges should keep a thick skin. In 2018, Shashi Tharoor had said that an RSS leader compared Narendra Modi to ‘Bachchhu sitting on Shivling’. BJP leader Rajiv Babbar filed a defamation case against him for this statement. Shashi Tharoor had demanded to stop the proceedings of the case, which was rejected in the High Court. After this, he approached the Supreme Court.
Justice MM Sundresh and Justice N. The bench of Kotishwar Singh said that after all, people living in public life should not be so emotional. Such statements should not be taken on the heart. Speaking at the Bengaluru Literature Festival in November 2018, Shashi Tharoor said that an RSS leader compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the scorpion sitting on the Shivling. His statement was disputed and the High Court had said that his statement was going to hurt the dignity of Prime Minister Modi and RSS. On this basis, the proceedings of the case filed against him were refused.
In this case today, a bench of the Supreme Court advised petitioners Rajiv Babbar and Shashi Tharoor to end the case. The bench said, ‘Let’s end this whole matter. What is the need to be so emotional about these things? Administrators and judges should keep thick skinned. At present, the lawyers have sought time to respond and now the future of the case will be decided in the next hearing. Let us tell you that after Babbar filed a defamation suit, the lower court issued summons to Shashi Tharoor. Shashi Tharoor says that what I said was not my statement. Actually, this statement was from Govardhan Jhadapia.
