Shashi Tharoor didn’t say that he will even hit the Shivling with a chappal, if needed, to oust Modi

An Instagram post is being shared with the picture of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor alleging that he had made controversial statements regarding ousting of Modi. Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post.

The archived version of the post can be found here.

Claim: Shashi Tharoor had said that he would even hit a Shivling with a chappal, if needed, to oust Modi.
Fact: Shashi Tharoor quoted the Shivling statements as said by an unnamed RSS source to a journalist of ‘The Caravan’. Those were not his personal remarks. Also, those quoted statements are twisted in the post. Hence, the claim is MISLEADING.

On doing Google Reverse Image search, the picture in the post was found in an article of ‘Loksatta’. In the article, an ANI tweet with the video of Tharoor’s speech during Bangalore Literature Festival-2018 was embedded. If we go through that video, we can clearly listen Tharoor saying, “There’s an extraordinarily striking metaphor expressed by an unnamed RSS source to a journalist, that, Modi is like a scorpion sitting on a Shivling, you can’t remove him with your hand & you cannot hit it with a chappal either.” These are not the personal remarks of Shashi Tharoor as claimed in the Instagram post. Also, the quoted statements are twisted in the post.