The 65-year-old MP later issued a clarification on his post, saying that the tweet and post was done in ‘great good humour’ and he was asked the women MPs in the image to post in the same vein
File image of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. PTI
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has been slammed by social media users for his recent Twitter post today, 29 November. The politician had posted a photo with six female MP, writing “Who says the Lok Sabha isn’t an attractive place to work?”
The picture was posted by the Thiruvananthapuram MP ahead of the Winter Session of Parliament. The photo in question shows Tharoor with Amarinder Singh’s wife Preneet Kaur, NCP leader Supriya Sule, Trinamool Congress MPs Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan and Congress’s Jothimani, and Tamizhachi Thangapandia.
The caption and picture were slammed by internet users for the sexism in the post and highlighting the difference between another recent photo that the 65-year-old MP posted with his male colleagues.
Several users took offence at the caption and said that the MP was being “sexist” and “disrespectful”.
Others asked him to stop “objectifying” female MPs.
Several users were disappointed that the MP thought that his recent tweet could be complimentary in nature.
However, some came to Tharoor’s defence, saying the caption and post were not sexist.
The 65-year-old MP later issued a clarification on his post, saying that the tweet and post was done in ‘great good humour’ and he was asked the women MPs in the image to post in the same vein. Tharoor added that while he “was sorry” that few individuals were offended by his post, but said he was always “happy to be roped in to this show of workplace camaraderie.”
This is not the first time that Tharoor has been slammed by internet users for his opinions. A few months ago, the Congress MP was called out for describing BJP leader Tejaswi Surya as “smart, passionate and talented” during the controversy over Surya listing the names of Muslim staffers in connection with a hospital bed blocking scam in Bengaluru.
Tharoor later backtracked and said that his intention was not to “mollycoddle” the BJP MP and added that there was no space for normalising bigotry in the country.