Shashi Tharoor defends himself over ‘Modi praising’ article

New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday defended himself after his article in Huffington Post on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to rebrand himself as inclusive sparked controversy.

"I think the problem with our media is that it misrepresents what it reads very hastily or doesn't read at all or it is reading paraphrases of my article. What I said was Mr Modi is trying to rebrand himself and remake himself from a hate figure to an avatar of modernity and progress. From May 16, we have nothing but positive accommodative inclusive language of reconciliation. We have not heard Hindutva being mentioned, we have not heard a divisive rhetoric. But the moment Modi says or does something divisive or sectarian, the Congress party will oppose it," Tharoor said.

This came after the Congress had distanced itself from Tharoor's views on Modi on Thursday.

Read: Congress distances itself from Shashi Tharoor's praise of Narendra Modi

The Congress had said that the views expressed by Tharoor about Modi and the government are his personal views and it was too early to comment on the functioning of the government.