Sashi Tharoor’s words lands him in trouble; will he apologize?

Do the Congress members have an affinity towards dogs? One has to ponder on that thought.

The BJP came down hard on Congress MP Shashi Tharoor after he likened the saffron party and its ally in poll-bound Meghalaya, the National People’s Party (NPP), to a dog and its wagging tail.

“We’re shocked with the language used by Shashi Tharoor for political parties, in terms of referring to a regional party as the wagging tail of a dog and by implication referring to the BJP literally as a dog. We demand an apology from Shashi Tharoor and Congress,” BJP leader Nalin Kohli said at a press briefing.

At the same time, the BJP did not shy away from taking a jibe at Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his pet pooch Pidi.

We’re shocked with the language used by Shashi Tharoor for political parties in terms of referring to a regional party as the wagging tail of a dog & by implication referring to the BJP literally as a dog. We demand an apology from Shashi Tharoor & Congress: Nalin Kohli, BJP pic.twitter.com/k1eTEYpjWc

— ANI (@ANI) February 24, 2018

BJP’s national general secretary Ram Madhav, too, was unimpressed with Tharoor’s analogy and panned the “indecent remark” as an insult to the people of Meghalaya.

This is d indecent remark reportedly made by Shashi Tharoor, who pretends to occupy moral high ground, in Meghalaya about NPP n BJP: It (NPP) was attached to d BJP as a tail ‘that wags whenever d dog barks’. It is an insult to people of Meghalaya. Media is silent?

— Ram Madhav (@rammadhavbjp) February 24, 2018

READ ALSO: BJP and Congress lock horns again as Karnataka gears up for election

Yesterday, Tharoor attacked the BJP-NPP alliance in Meghalaya, which goes to the hustings next week. The former bureaucrat courted controversy when he said:

NPP is saying to Meghalaya that they are independent & contesting by themselves everywhere else, but in Meghalaya they are allied to BJP & attaching themselves as the tail that is wagging along whenever the dog barks: Shashi Tharoor in Shillong (23.02.2018) pic.twitter.com/kSnP3tP3MG

— ANI (@ANI) February 24, 2018

Calling it a “masked party”, Tharoor said the NPP pretends to be one thing while it speaks for local interests but is also allied to a party which has betrayed the values of our country.

The Congress leader also accused the BJP of “promoting a narrow-minded idea of India” which he is solely based on Hindutva.

Alluding to the reported attacks on Christians in BJP-ruled states, Tharoor questioned the “real face” of the NDA government.

“In Meghalaya, they come here and say that you can eat whatever you like and in the rest of India they beat and even kill people on suspicion of having eaten beef,” he said.

Meghalaya Assembly Elections 2018 is scheduled for February 27 to elect all 60 members to the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly. The results will be announced on March 3. The incumbent Congress government, led by Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, will attempt to win the election for the third time in a row.