Rahul Gandhi meant it metaphorically: Shashi Tharoor on 'Modi will be beaten with sticks' remark

During campaigning for his party in Delhi, Gandhi earlier this week had said youth of the country will beat up Narendra Modi with sticks if he fails to address the issue of unemployment.

At an event organised by Prabha Khaitan Foundation here, Tharoor, who is a Lok Sabha MP from Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram, said, "One misspeaks in the heat of an election campaign sometimes. I know Rahul Gandhi only meant it metaphorically. I don't think he was implying physical violence against Mr. Modi.

I think he was trying to imply that Mr. Modi won't be able to boast like this because of the fact that the youth of the nation will wake up to the fact that he has wrecked their lives."

Targetting the Narendra Modi government over jobs and unemployment, he added, "I mean it's an extraordinary situation today that the unemployment of graduates aged between 20 and 24 in India is 64 per cent. There is only one-third of every graduate between ages 20-24 can expect a job.

That's how bad things are in the country. It's a record. It has never been this bad. So Mr. Modi has failures for which he will have to be eventually held accountable. That was the point Rahul Gandhi was trying to make."

Praising Modi's skill and considering Gandhi as a "victim", the Congress politician said, "Look Mr. Modi is a gifted politician, his political repartee is amazing and he will turn almost every barb into something in his favour.

It would be unwise either to avoid criticising (him) because of it because in any democracy there has to be both sides of every argument. And our side of the argument clearly is that we need to be out there and point out his failures and follies to the nation.

May be we should do it in the language more restraint on television or other places but on a public stage during an election rally, a lot of things are said. In fact, far worse are being said by BJP leaders that people just overlook with the passage of time. For Rahul Gandhi, his misfortune is not the slightest thing he says is spared exaggeration, distortion and nationwide comment."

While speaking in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, Modi replied to Gandhi's remark wittily saying, "I heard an Opposition MP saying- we will beat Modi with sticks in 6 months.

I have also decided to do more Surya Namaskar. This will make my back even stronger to face abuses. In any case, I have been abused so much for the last two decades, their negativity hardly matters." 

When IBNS asked him why Congress' campaign was much weaker than the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the Delhi assembly elections, Tharoor felt otherwise as he said, "Look I think that is the conventional wisdom. That is the perception. But I still have faith in the Congress' capability to bring about surprise as we proved it in three of four elections.

No one expected Congress to come so close to BJP in the Gujarat elections. Congress surprised everybody by coming to nearly the half-the-seats margin. Similarly Congress did much better in Haryana during the Lok Sabha elections. We won Chhattisgarh by a bigger margin. We lost Maharashtra but we did well enough that a coalition government has been possible."

Earlier in the day, Tharoor urged people to vote for Congress tweeting, "Listening to the Delhi campaigns of the last couple of weeks: @AamAadmiParty is right about @BJP4India & BJP is right about AAP. @INCIndia is the only party that is right about both!!"