New Delhi, October 31: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday sent a legal notice to Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for calling him a murder accused. Seeking an apology within 48 hours, Shashi Tharoor accused Ravi Shankar Prasad of "purposefully lying to the public to defame him". Tharoor warned of further legal action if Prasad doesn't apologise.

Quoting an unnamed RSS source, Tharoor likened Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a scorpion seated on a Shivling. "Modi is like a scorpion sitting on a Shivling. You cannot remove him with your hand and you cannot hit it with a 'chappal' (slipper) either," said Tharoor at a literary event, recalling what an RSS member had told a journalist in 2012. 'Shiv Bhakt' Rahul Gandhi Must Apologise For Shashi Tharoor's 'Scorpion on Shivling' Remark, Says BJP.

Reacting to this, Prasad had tweeted: "Shashi Tharoor, who is accused in a murder case, has attempted to disrespect Lord Shiva. I seek a reply from Rahul Gandhi who claims himself to be a 'bhakt' (devotee) of Lord Shiva on this horrific denunciation of Hindu gods by a Congress MP. Rahul Gandhi must apologize to all Hindus."

Responding to Prasad, the Thiruvananthapuram MP had said that his comment quoting an unnamed RSS source on Modi had been in public domain for six years. "This comment (not by me) has been in the public domain for six years. R.S. Prasad making an issue of a six-year-old quote shows how little new the BJP has to offer the nation," tweeted Tharoor. Shashi Tharoor on Ram Mandir in Ayodhya: No Good Hindu Wants Temple by Razing Masjid.

Clarifying, Tharoor said he had cited in his book the context in which it (metaphor) was used. "In view of the unseemly demonisation of an out-of-context remark today involving a scorpion metaphor, my book #TheParadoxicalPrimeMinister cites and footnotes in this article -- please see the last paragraph of this article," tweeted Tharoor.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 31, 2018 06:13 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).