Congress leader Shashi Tharoor’s attempt to attack the Centre
over demonetisation using the surname of the newly crowned Miss World Manushi
Chhillar backfired on Sunday with the National Commission for Women deciding to
summon him over his “derogatory” remark.
Condemning Tharoor’s comment, the NCW also demanded that he
apologise for allegedly degrading the achievement of Chhillar.
Tharoor apologised over his remark, which he said was a
“light-hearted” comment and also praised Chhillar.
However, it was not clear if he apologised after the NCW took
serious view of the tweet.
“What a mistake to demonetise our currency! BJP should have
realised that Indian cash dominates the globe: look, even our Chhillar has
become Miss World!,” Tharoor said on the micro-blogging site, apparently
punning on the word ‘chillar’, which in Hindi means loose change.
“@NCWIndia will summon @ShashiTharoor to commission on his
derogatory and degrading tweet on our pride @ManushiChhillar. She got fame and
name to country by winning #MissWorld crown,” the commission said on Twitter.
Accusing Tharoor of degrading the achievement of Chhillar, a
medical student who hails from Haryana, the NCW asked whether the Congress
leader will call his own daughter a “chillar”.
“...he must apologise immediately,” it said.
Tharoor apologised, stressing that no offence was meant to
the “bright young girl”.
“Guess the pun IS the lowest form of humour, & the
bilingual pun lower still! Apologies to the many who seem to have been
righteously offended by a light-hearted tweet today. Certainly no offence was
meant to a bright young girl whose answer I’ve separately praised. Please:
Chill!,” he tweeted.
However, Tharoor was not the only one to draw a link between
the Miss World’s surname and demonetisation on the micro-blogging site with
many of them punning on the word ‘chillar’.
