Thiruvananthapuram: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor found himself on a sticky wicket Saturday as his tweet, following a visit to the fish market here, kicked up a row, with the CPI(M) and the BJP alleging that he had insulted the fishermen community and demanded an apology. Reacting to the row, the former Union minister, who is trying to score a hat-trick from the prestigious Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat, claimed his words had been “deliberately twisted” to show that he had insulted the fisherfolk. “My words have been twisted to create misunderstanding,” he told reporters here.
Tharoor had visited a fish market in the state capital recently during his campaign and spoken to the women selling fish there. He later also posted some pictures of his visit. “Found a lot of enthusiasm at the fish market, even for a squeamish, vegetarian MP,” Tharoor had later tweeted.
As controversy erupted over the use of the word “squeamish”, Tharoor in another tweet quoted the meaning of the word from an online English-Malayalam dictionary. “For those Malayali leftist politicians who are currently having difficulty understanding my English,” he tweeted. Fishermen took out marches in Kochi, Kollam and Kozhikode against the tweet, saying they had been insulted. Hitting out at the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala and the BJP, he alleged they were trying to propagate lies to win the election.