(MENAFN- AsiaNet News) Senior congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday (June 23) came under heavy criticism for a social media post that poked fun at the examination system in Uttar Pradesh amid ongoing paper leak controversies.
Tharoor shared a viral post showing an answer sheet with the question, "Uttar Pradesh kise kehte hain? (Define Uttar Pradesh.)” The answer humorously read,“Woh pradesh jahan pariksha se pehle uttar pata chal jaaye use Uttar Pradesh kehte hain. (The state where answers are known before the exams is called Uttar Pradesh)."
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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) interpreted the post as an insult to the people of Uttar Pradesh. Union minister Jitin Prasada responded sharply, "I don't see the humor in running down my state and its people by stereotyping them with such condemnable remarks. Such an insult to UP is deplorable and must be condemned in the strongest words."
BJP spokesperson CR Kesavan labeled Tharoor a "repeat offender," accusing him of previously ridiculing the people of the northeast by mocking their traditional attire as "outlandish."
"To belittle a serious issue, implying that the state of UP is a state of cheaters is indefensible and unpardonable. Splattering fancy English words does not necessarily make one civil and dignified," Kesavan added.
Former Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who recently lost to Tharoor in the Lok Sabha elections from Thiruvananthapuram, also criticized the Congress leader. "Shameless crass politics of shaming other fellow Indians - that's the Congress way, ably demonstrated by this self-titled Global citizen," Chandrasekhar said.
He also referenced the recent controversy surrounding Sam Pitroda's comments on Indian nationals, saying, "Runs deep in the Cong DNA, this type of superiority complex."
BJP leader and Rajasthan minister Rajyavardhan Rathore questioned Tharoor's motives and said, "Shashi, you having to resort to frivolity!! And in doing so condemning people of an entire state? You don't see UP as yours, since you are deriding it. When a person of your stature and intelligence mocks a State, why wouldn't others do?"
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Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma joined the fray, using what has come to be known as 'Tharoorian English'. He wrote, "This gentleman frequently indulges in satirizing various cultures (first Northeast and now UP) with remarkably caustic words. He has succumbed to the beguiling whispers of lunacy, his mind adrift in the ethereal mists of derangement."
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