Tharoor said he is “taken aback by the attack” on Moitra and advised people to “lighten up and leave religion” to individuals.
Amid outrage over Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra’s comments on Godess ‘Kaali’, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday said he is “taken aback by the attack” on her and advised people to “lighten up and leave religion” to individuals to practice privately.
Ms Moitra on on Tuesday stirred a hornet’s nest when, speaking at an India Today event, she said she has every right as “an individual to imagine Goddess Kali as a meat-eating and alcohol-accepting Goddess”, as every person has the right to worship God and Goddess in their own way.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), opening an all-out attack against Ms Moitra, asked if it was the official stand of West Bengal’s ruling party to insult Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Trinamool Congress, distancing itself from the remarks of its MP, said the party does not endorse them.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, taking to Twitter on Wednesday, wrote: “I am no stranger to malicious manufactured controversy, but am still taken aback by the attack on Mahua Moitra for saying what every Hindu knows, that our forms of worship vary widely across the country. What devotees offer as bhog (offering) says more about them than about the Goddess.”
“We have reached a stage where no one can say anything publicly about any aspect of religion without someone claiming to be offended. It’s obvious that Mahua Moitra wasn’t trying to offend anyone. I urge everyone to lighten up and leave religion to individuals to practice privately,” the Thiruvananthapuram MP said.
2/2 We have reached a stage where no one can say anything publicly about any aspect of religion without someone claiming to be offended. It’s obvious that @MahuaMoitra wasn’t trying to offend anyone. I urge every1 to lighten up&leave religion to individuals to practice privately.
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) July 6, 2022
Mahua Moitra, speaking at India Today Conclave East in Kolkata, had said it is up to individuals how they view their gods.
“If you go to Bhutan or Sikkim, for example, when they do puja, they give whisky to their God. Now, if you go to Uttar Pradesh and say that you give whisky to your god as prasad, they will say that is blasphemous,” she had said.
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