Kamal Nath should get same benefit of doubt as Modi: Shashi Tharoor

Shashi Tharoor is a leader who has a way with words—sometimes, those words find a way into a controversy. In July, addressing an event in Thiruvananthapuram, he said: “If they (the BJP) are able to win a repeat of their current strength in the Lok Sabha then, frankly, our own democratic Constitution, as we understand [it], will not survive... because then they will have all the three elements they need to tear up the Constitution of India and write a new one. And that will enshrine the principle of Hindu Rashtra, that will remove equality for the minorities, and that will create a Hindu Pakistan...”

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor defended the party's Madhya Pradesh chief minister-designate Kamal Nath over allegations of involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, saying the charges were not proven in the court of law. Interacting with members of the All India Professional Congress, he also said Nath should get the same "benefit of doubt" which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is given about his handling of the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Tharoor was asked whether the Congress has lost the moral high ground to the BJP by nominating Nath for chief minister's post, as he faces allegations of involvement in the 1984 riots.

He said Nath was not in any position of authority nor was he the chief minister of Delhi during the riots.

"No court found any evidence against him to convict him. It is wrong to make the judgement based on unsubstantiated and unproven allegations," he said.

Modi has not been convicted by any court of law (though he faced allegations of administration's complicity in post-Godhra riots when he was the chief minister), the Congress leader said.

"The same benefit of doubt given to Modi should apply to Kamal Nath," Tharoor said.

Nath, a nine-time MP from Chhindwara, will be taking oath as Madhya Pradesh chief minister on December 17.

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