THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, MP, has asked BJP State president P. S. Sreedharan Pillai to apologize for grossly misrepresenting his comment on the Sabrimala controversy and be prepared to face legal proceedings for damaging his reputation by spreading canards.
Mr Tharoor riposte was to Mr Pillai’s allegation at a press conference on Tuesday, asking him to clarify whether he still stood by his statement that the women here suffered from Stockholm syndrome. He accused Dr Tharoor of saying women suffered from “false consciousness” and blaming them for participating in namajapa rallies.
Countering Mr Pillai’s allegations, Dr Tharoor cited his Op-Ed comment in a leading news website, saying how Sabarimala issue left "instinctive liberals" like him torn.
"It is all very well for some liberals to suggest that “false consciousness” makes even victims adhere to or defend the conditions of their discrimination; but in matters of religion, it would be preposterous to tell women that their faith is really a form of Stockh-olm syndrome. When you disturb the beliefs of worshippers, you violate a space beyond reasoning”, wrote Tharoor in the article.
Dr Tharoor said Mr Pillai, instead of reading his comment in English or not grasping its context correctly, preferred to quote from a mistranslation of his article in a Malayalam daily and ignoring a correction carried out by the daily.
He said Mr Pillai had politicized the issue of women’s entry at Sabarimala and undertook a disruptive road campaign instead of persuading his party, which had sufficient numbers in Parliament to introduce a bill or issue an ordinance to get over the situation obtaining after the top court verdict.
Dr Tharoor assailed Mr Pillai’s base approach, stooping to hit him in the early pre-election phase.
Dr Tharoor had taken a strong stand on the Sabarimala issue citing that it is an issue of rituals and beliefs, not of equality. He had maintained that the women entry in Sabarimala is an issue concerning the sanctity and the rituals of the temple.
