Tharoor accuses media of misreporting his remarks on Nehru

An angry Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor today hit out at the media claiming that they had misreported his remarks on Jawaharlal Nehru and demanded that they issue a correction.

A day after his reported remarks at an academic seminar on international relations created a flutter in the Congress, Tharoor called a press conference in his office and said he was dismayed at the "inaccurate and tendentious reporting".

He said that as chairman of the seminar organised by the Indian Council of World Affairs, he had only made an honest summary of London School of Economics professor Lord Bhikhu Parekh's hour-long speech on "India's Place in the World".

He also noted that Parkeh had suggested that India export its values and systems to the world. Tharoor said that in his intervention, he had "very gently and politely disagreed with Lord Parekh". Asked whether Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had spoken to him following the media reports, he refused to divulge as to who had talked to him.

"Yes, I have spoken to a number of people who are disturbed about this type of press reporting. There are some press reports that are less tendentious. But as far as I am concerned this is my view of the matter and I have shared this view with those I have spoken to," Tharoor said.

He said that it was against his principle to divulge any privileged communication. On whether External Affairs Minister S M Krishna had ticked him off on his comments on changes in visa rules, Tharoor said.

"I know what the minister told me and do not go by news reports of what he was supposed to have told me." When asked if he had become an embarrassment to the Congress, Tharoor shot back saying, "I am not going to take this nonsense anymore."