Tharoor clarifies as his ‘attractive’ tweet sparks ugly row

Congress leader posts selfie with six women MPs, is accused of ‘sexism’ and ‘objectification’

Tharoor clarifies as his ‘attractive’ tweet sparks ugly row

Along with this selfie, Tharoor wrote: ‘Who says the Lok Sabha isn’t an attractive place to work? With six of my fellow MPs this morning’

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday posted a selfie with six women MPs on Twitter with a caption: “Who says the Lok Sabha isn’t an attractive place to work?”, triggering a controversy with many netizens accusing him of sexism. Tharoor later apologised for offending “some people” and said the “whole selfie thing” was done at the women MPs’ initiative.

“Who says the Lok Sabha isn’t an attractive place to work? With six of my fellow MPs this morning,” he said and posted a picture of himself with Supriya Sule, Preneet Kaur, Thamizhachi Thangapandian, Mimi Chakraborty, Nusrat Jahan Ruhi and Jyothimani. After being accused of “sexism” and “objectification”, he tweeted, “The whole selfie thing was done (at the women MPs’ initiative) in great good humour & it was they who asked me to tweet it in the same spirit.”

“I am sorry some people are offended but I was happy to be roped into this show of workplace camaraderie. That’s all this is,” the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said. While National Commission for Women chef Rekha Sharma said Tharoor was “demeaning their contribution in parliament and politics by making them an object of attraction”, TMC MP Mauhua Moitra tweeted, “Not surprised that a bunch of ugly trolls attacking @ShashiTharoor on a non-issue to detract attention from this non-attractive government’s decision to not allow a discussion on the farm act repeal”.

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